Increase in Pleasurable Effects of Alcohol Over Time Can Predict Alcohol Use Disorder
upstart writes in with an IRC submission:
Increase in pleasurable effects of alcohol over time may predict alcohol use disorder:
During her training as a clinical psychologist, Andrea King, PhD, was taught the standard theory about alcoholism: Individuals who drink to excess develop tolerance to the substance, requiring them to drink more over time to achieve pleasurable feelings. This spiral has long been thought to lead to addiction.
But when she started working with patients with alcohol use disorder (AUD), King noticed that - contrary to what she'd been taught by prevailing research and clinical lore - addicted patients didn't seem to have a tolerance to the pleasurable effects of alcohol, only to the sedating effects. Their response to the positive effects of alcohol wasn't diminished at all," she said.
[...] In a new study, published on Jan. 5 [...] King and her team tested 190 non-alcoholic young adults in a laboratory-based binge-drinking scenario at three regular intervals over the course of 10 years.
The study showed that those individuals who reported the highest pleasurable and rewarding effects of alcohol at the start of the trial were more likely to develop an alcohol use disorder, or AUD (the current clinical term for alcoholism).
[...] This could be an opportunity for early intervention, comparable to how someone may get their cholesterol tested and then may be more motivated to change their diet, exercise more or start a medication to rein it in," King said. Similarly, knowing one's acute response to alcohol and how it may indicate a person's future risk for drinking problems, one may decide to change their drinking on their own or seek help to avoid the progression to addiction."
Journal Reference:
Subjective Responses to Alcohol in the Development and Maintenance of Alcohol Use Disorder, American Journal of Psychiatry (DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2020.20030247)
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