Prevention researchers have found that drinking in different contexts is related to different alcohol problems. Where and with whom people drink affects the types of alcohol-related problems they experience. Consequently, identifying those contexts that result in the greatest number of problems provides a novel opportunity to target new prevention efforts aimed at those contexts. However...
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Introduction
Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) is a necessary cause of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD), a group of alcohol-related conditions characterized by neurodevelopmental problems. Although PAE is associated with many adverse physical, neurodevelopmental, and social outcomes, the most commonly studied are neurodevelopmental—primarily behavioral and cognitive—outcomes. Associations...
Associations Between Socioeconomic Factors and Alcohol Outcomes
According to the World Health Organization (2014), alcohol consumption is responsible for approximately 5.9 percent of deaths worldwide and a global loss of 139 million disability-adjusted life-years. The alcohol-related disease burden is precipitated in part by acute intoxication, which decreases reaction time, perception and motor skills, and inhibitions and is thereby associated with an...
Impact of Continuing Care on Recovery From Substance Use Disorder
Continuing care is widely believed to be an important component of effective treatment for substance use disorder, particularly for those individuals with greater problem severity. The purpose of this review was to examine the research literature on continuing care for alcohol and drug use disorders, including studies that addressed efficacy, moderators, mechanisms of action, and economic impact...
Introduction
Pain is a complex, near-universal phenomenon, which can be conceptualized as a motivational state that engenders goal-directed action.1 Motivational models of substance use highlight the role of expected effects and suggest that individuals become motivated to use substances when such use is perceived as holding greater value than other available objects or events.2,3 A rapidly...
Alcohol’s Effects on the Brain: Neuroimaging Results in Humans and Animal Models
Brain imaging technology has allowed researchers to conduct rigorous studies of the dynamic course of alcoholism through periods of drinking, sobriety, and relapse and to gain insights into the effects of chronic alcoholism on the human brain. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies have distinguished alcohol-related brain effects that are permanent from those that are reversible with abstinence...
Gender Differences in Binge Drinking
A large research literature shows that women consistently consume less alcohol than men, and they experience fewer social problems resulting from drinking than men, but these gender differences vary culturally, demographically, and historically.
Electronic Feedback in College Student Drinking Prevention and Intervention
Alcohol consumption is prevalent among college students and can be associated with serious negative consequences. Several efficacious programs using one-on-one brief intervention techniques have been developed to target high-risk drinking by individual students, such as the Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students (BASICS) (Dimeff et al. 1999). To reach a larger population (e...
Effects of Alcohol on Tumor Growth, Metastasis, Immune Response, and Host Survival
Alcohol use and abuse have been implicated as etiological factors in the genesis of an increasing number of cancer types in both men and women. In 2012, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) listed both beverage alcohol (i.e., ethanol) and its major metabolite, acetaldehyde, as tumor-inducing substances (i.e., carcinogens) in humans. The most recent worldwide statistic from 2002...
Advances in Electrophysiological Research
The discovery and recording of electrical activity (electroencephalography [EEG]) in the human brain in 1924 by the German physician Hans Berger (Collura 1993; Haas 2003) has led to numerous scientific breakthroughs and clinical applications (Borck 2005; Gloor 1994). Recording brain activity in humans using scalp electrodes provides a noninvasive, sensitive measure of ongoing brain function...