Alcoholism, Clinical and Experimental Research

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BACKGROUND: Sexual aggression (SA) is ubiquitous in drinking environments, often seen as normal and acceptable; yet, targets of SA experience many negative consequences. This research aimed to develop a valid measure of common acts of SA in drinking settings for estimating prevalence and evaluating prevention initiatives. METHODS: We developed a questionnaire measure of common acts of sexual harassment and aggression in drinking environments (C-SHADE) based on descriptions of SA behavior from our own and others' research...

OBJECTIVE: Alcohol-related injury is a sentinel event, an unanticipated medical event that may prompt re-evaluation of health behaviors, such as alcohol use. Few studies have examined the psychological components of the sentinel event that motivate behavior change. In the present study, we examined the influence of cognitive and affective components of an alcohol-related injury on changes in alcohol use following a brief intervention. METHOD: Injured patients (n = 411) who were drinking prior to their injury admission were recruited from three urban Level I trauma centers and randomized to brief advice or brief motivational intervention with or without a 1-month booster session...

BACKGROUND: Several personality traits predict future alcohol problems but also relate to demographic and substance-related variables that themselves correlate with later adverse alcohol outcomes. Few prospective studies have evaluated whether the personality measures predict alcohol problems after considering current demography and substance related variables. METHODS: Data from 414 drinkers without alcohol use disorder (AUD) from the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (average age 20, 44% male) were followed over an average of nine years...

BACKGROUND: Alcohol stimulates cerebral blood flow (CBF) in brain reward regions, but neural processes that support sustained alcohol motivation after the first drink are not well understood. METHODS: Using a novel placebo-controlled, randomized, crossover experiment, 27 alcohol users who binge drink (BD; 15 M, 12 F) and 25 social drinkers (SD; 15 M, 10 F) who do not binge, engaged in a behavioral test of self-motivated alcohol consumption to assess initial alcohol motivation using an Alcohol Taste Test (ATT) conducted with alcoholic and non-alcoholic placebo beer on separate days immediately prior to perfusion functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning...

BACKGROUND: Phosphatidylethanol (PEth) is a biomarker for recent alcohol consumption that would ideally validate self-reported alcohol consumption behaviors. We assessed the relationship between PEth and several self-reported alcohol consumption metrics among hazardous alcohol users living with HIV in Vietnam. METHODS: Participants in a three-arm randomized controlled trial assessing two alcohol interventions reported recent alcohol consumption on a 30-day timeline follow-back and had a PEth assessment at enrollment, 3 months, and 12 months of study follow-up...

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD) progression in early pre-cirrhotic stages can be a silent process. Serum keratin 18 levels (K18-M65) predict severe events and mortality in advanced stages of ALD, but data in early stages are scarce. We evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of K18-M65 to identify early forms of ALD. METHODS: We prospectively included two cohorts of actively drinking patients (training (n=162) and validation (n=78)) with alcohol use disorder (AUD) following a rehabilitation program and matched healthy controls (n=21)...

The dynorphin (DYN) / kappa opioid receptor (KOR) system has increasingly been investigated as a possible pharmacotherapeutic target for the treatment of alcohol use disorder, but findings on the direction of its effects have been mixed. Activation of KORs by DYN has been shown to be able to elicit dysphoric effects, and while the DYN/KOR system has canonically been considered particularly important in driving intake though negative reinforcement in dependent states, this review highlights that its activity may also oppose the positive reinforcement that drives intake in earlier stages...

BACKGROUND: The degree to which prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) may influence alcohol and drug use in adulthood is difficult to determine, given that PAE is highly correlated with environmental factors, including low socioeconomic status and exposure to parental drinking, and with behavioral problems, such as, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), that are correlated with alcohol use and abuse. METHODS: Participants were 121 young adults from our Detroit Longitudinal Cohort study...

BACKGROUND: Craving is a central concept in alcohol research, but the semantic interpretation of "craving" as a concept varies. Multiple studies have investigated differences in operational definitions of "craving" and have demonstrated a lack of agreement. This study investigated if moderate to heavy drinkers would rate "craving" and "desire" for alcohol in similar ways and explored potential neurobiological differences underpinning feelings of craving and desire. METHODS: Thirty-nine alcohol consumers were studied across 3-day periods of their typical alcohol consumption and imposed abstinence...

BACKGROUND: The Acquired Preparedness Model suggests that highly impulsive individuals develop stronger positive alcohol expectancies which in turn predicts heavier drinking. However, most acquired preparedness studies have focused solely on between-person relations, despite theory to suggest potential developmental-specific within-person relations. Therefore, the current study tested the Acquired Preparedness Model from late adolescence into adulthood, while disaggregating within- from between-person relations...

BACKGROUND: This study sought to determine whether drinking limit goal commitment and goal confidence mediate the association between desire to get drunk and binge drinking (4+ drinks for a woman and 5+ drinks for a man on a given occasion) among young adults exposed to text message goal-related feedback. METHODS: Participants were 297 young adults with hazardous drinking randomized to one of two text-message interventions incorporating drinking limit goal-related assessments and feedback who also completed at least two days of assessments over 12 weeks of intervention exposure...

BACKGROUND: Use of biomarkers in behavioral HIV research can help to address limitations of self-reported data. The COVID-19 pandemic forced many researchers to transition from standard in-person data collection to remote data collection. We present data on the feasibility of remote self-collection of dried blood spots (DBS), hair, and nails for the objective assessment of alcohol use, antiretroviral therapy adherence, and stress in a sample of people with HIV (PWH) who are hazardous drinkers...

BACKGROUND: Intermittent access to ethanol (EtOH) drives persistent escalation of intake and rapid transition from moderate to compulsive-like drinking. Intermittent EtOH drinking may facilitate escalation in part by altering aversion-sensitive neural substrates, such as the insular cortex (IC), thus driving greater approach toward stimuli previously treated as aversive. METHODS: We conducted a series of experiments in rats to examine behavioral and neural responses associated with escalation of EtOH intake...

BACKGROUND: Accurately quantifying alcohol use among persons with HIV (PWH) is important for validly assessing the efficacy of alcohol reduction interventions. METHODS: We used data from a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of an intervention to reduce alcohol use among PWH who were receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) in Tshwane, South Africa. We calculated agreement between self-reported hazardous alcohol use measured by the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT ≥8) and AUDIT-Consumption (AUDIT-C; ≥3 for females/≥4 for males), heavy episodic drinking (HED) in past 30 days, and heavy drinking in the past 7 days with a gold standard biomarker, phosphatidylethanol (PEth), level (≥50 ng/mL) among 309 participants...

BACKGROUND: Alcohol drinking during pregnancy often produces detrimental effects on the brain's development and induces persistent central nervous system dysfunctions in the offspring. However, it is not known whether fetal alcohol exposure promotes biochemical characteristics of Alzheimer's disease in the offspring. METHODS: We used a first and second-trimester human equivalent rat model of fetal alcohol exposure that involve feeding liquid diet containing 6.7% v/v ethanol from gestational days 7 through 21 in Fisher 344 rats...

BACKGROUND: Consideration of sex- and gender-related factors is critical for understanding and supporting health and wellbeing. Although both sex and gender influence people with developmental disabilities, there is relatively little research on these factors and their influences among individuals with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD), a complex neurodevelopmental disability impacting an estimated 4%-5% of the population. Understanding sex- and gender-related differences in FASD is needed to facilitate evidence-informed assessment, treatment planning, and advocacy...

OBJECTIVE: Quantitative research has typically relied on categorical measures of sex assigned at birth (SAAB) and gender, with heterogeneous findings in terms of their associations with alcohol-related behavior. This investigation examined continuous indices of self-identification as an alternative to categorical operationalizations in alcohol research. METHOD: Eight hundred ninety-three undergraduate students (74.6% cisgender women, 20.3% cisgender men, 3.9% nonbinary, and 1...

BACKGROUND: Endorsement of specific DSM-IV alcohol use disorder (AUD) criteria items changed significantly over time in men in their thirties with persistent or recurrent AUD. Few studies have documented whether endorsement of AUD items change over time in younger individuals or in women. The prospective analyses presented here evaluate changes in endorsement of AUD criteria in 377 men and women with persistent or recurrent AUD during their twenties. METHODS: AUD item endorsement over time between average ages of 20 and 25 in 223 men and 154 women with persistent or recurrent AUD in at least three interviews were available from participants in the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism...

BACKGROUND: Alcohol-dependent individuals tend to selectively approach alcohol cues in the environment, demonstrating an alcohol approach bias. Approach Bias Modification (ApBM) training can reduce the approach bias and decrease relapse rates in alcohol-dependent patients when added to abstinence-focused treatment. It has therefore become part of regular treatment. Moreover, in Selective Inhibition (SI-) Training, responses to one category of stimuli (i.e., alcohol stimuli) are selectively inhibited in an adapted Go/No-Go-Task...