Creating a research context for reducing risk and obtaining informed consent in human alcohol studies.

Alcohol consumption by problem drinkers in research involves risks and raises ethical issues. Disease perspectives, however, exaggerate the level of risk and have questionable validity and generality. These accounts suggest that because problem drinkers cannot exert volitional control over drinking, alcohol studies undermine their capacity to give informed consent and entail unacceptable risks of promoting abusive drinking. Alcoholics' purported propensity for denial is also thought to compromise the assessment of risks. Contemporary theory and research question these assertions and help guide the creation of research contexts that reduce risk and promote informed consent. Key contextual elements are (a) the extent of availability of alcohol and other valued activities in participants' natural environments, which reduce the appeal of drinking in research contexts, and (b) whether contingencies exist for inaccurate verbal reports. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evidence that self-affirmation reduces alcohol consumption: Randomized exploratory trial with a new, brief means of self-affirming.

Objective: To test the ability of a new, brief means of affirming the self (the “self-affirming implementation intention”) to decrease alcohol consumption against a standard means of self-affirmation (the self-affirming “kindness” questionnaire) and an active control condition; to test whether self-affirmation effects can be sustained beyond the experimental session; and to examine potential moderators of the effects. Method: Two hundred seventy-eight participants were randomly allocated to one of three conditions: control questionnaire, self-affirming questionnaire, and self-affirming implementation intention. All participants were exposed to a threatening health message, designed to inform them about the health risks associated with consuming alcohol. Main Outcome Measures: The main outcome measure was subsequent alcohol intake. Results: There were significant public health gains and statistically significant decreases (>1 unit/day) in alcohol consumption in the two experimental conditions but not in the control condition. At the end of the study, participants in the control condition were consuming 2.31 units of alcohol per day; people in the self-affirming questionnaire condition were consuming 1.52 units of alcohol per day; and people in the self-affirming implementation intention condition were consuming 1.53 units of alcohol per day. There were no significant differences between the self-affirming questionnaire and self-affirming implementation intention, and adherence did not moderate the effects. Self-affirmation also improved message processing, increased perceived threat, and led to lower message derogation. Conclusions: The findings support the efficacy of a new, brief self-affirmation manipulation to enhance the effectiveness of health risk information over time. Further research is needed to identify mediators of the effects of self-affirmation on health behavior change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction to the special section on empirical underpinnings of the ethics of alcohol administration in research settings.

This article introduces the special section of Psychology of Addictive Behaviors that focuses on the ethics of administering alcohol to human research participants, particularly those with a history of alcohol abuse or dependence. It is argued that many assumptions underlying ethical decision making can be put to an empirical test. These assumptions involve the degree to which participants can understand and give informed consent as well as the types and magnitude of possible risks associated with consuming alcohol in a research setting. The research literature relevant to these assumptions is reviewed in this series. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Body mass index and alcohol consumption: Family history of alcoholism as a moderator.

Recent research suggests that excess food consumption may be conceptualized as an addictive behavior. Much of the evidence comes from neurobiological similarities between drug and food consumption. In addition, an inverse relation between alcohol consumption and body mass index (BMI) has been observed. Previous research has hypothesized that this inverse relation is attributable to competition between food and alcohol for similar neurotransmitter receptors. The current study explored this neurobiological hypothesis further by examining the influence of an indicator of biological risk associated with alcohol problems (family history of alcoholism) on the relationship between alcohol and food intake. Data from 37,259 participants in the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) were included in the study. BMI, family history of alcoholism, gender, and race/ethnicity were assessed as predictors of typical drinking frequency and estimated blood alcohol concentration (BAC). An inverse relationship between alcohol consumption and BMI was demonstrated. An attenuation of family history effects on drinking behavior was evident for obese compared to nonobese participants. The results suggest a neurobiological link between alcohol use and food consumption, consistent with theories characterizing excess food consumption as an addictive behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of a simulated drinking game procedure to study risky alcohol use.

The aim of the current study was to initiate and describe the development of a Simulated Drinking Game Procedure (SDGP), a safe, efficient, and alcohol-free laboratory protocol for studying drinking game behavior. Fifty-two undergraduates completed the SDGP in a laboratory session, where participants played singles and/or doubles games of Beer Pong. Water was substituted for alcohol in all of the games. The number of drinks consumed during matches and 20-min play periods were coded during each session, and software was used to estimate the peak blood alcohol concentration (BAC) a participant would achieve if he or she had consumed actual alcohol while participating in the SDGP. Results indicated that participation in Beer Pong can lead to rapid consumption of alcohol and an associated rise in BAC. Results also highlight additional risks for female participants associated with participation in drinking games. The SDGP is a research tool capable of increasing our understanding of drinking games. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

In search of the seven dwarves: Issues of measurement and meaning in alcohol expectancy research.

Discusses substantive issues in predicting drinking patterns from expectancies, as well as issues of content and measurement of the scales developed to measure these expectancies. In recent years, much research has suggested that alcohol expectancies—or the beliefs that individuals hold about the effects of alcohol on their behavior, moods, and emotions—are an important factor in motivating drinking behavior. Although measures of these expectancies have consistently been shown to be correlated with measures of alcohol use, conceptual and methodological problems remain to be addressed. In order to progress in understanding this potentially important psychosocial factor in abusive and nonabusive drinking, alcohol expectancy research, which has been atheoretical in nature, should attend to potential contributions from other areas of research in psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Use of drinking protective behavioral strategies in association to sex-related alcohol negative consequences: The mediating role of alcohol consumption.

Alcohol use has been implicated as a risk factor for sexual negative consequences, such as unprotected sexual intercourse. The present research was conducted to examine the relationship between drinking protective behavioral strategies and consensual sex-related alcohol negative consequences, and whether this relationship varied by gender. Additionally, typical number of drinks during sexual behavior was evaluated as a potential mediator of this association. Heavy drinking, sexually active college students (N = 297, 50.2% women) completed self-report measures of drinking protective behavioral strategies, alcohol consumption, and sex-related alcohol negative consequences. Findings indicated that women who used drinking protective behavioral strategies more frequently were less likely to experience sex-related alcohol negative consequences whereas this relationship was not significant for men. For women, this relationship was mediated by the typical number of drinks consumed during sexual behavior. The current research demonstrates that use of drinking protective behavioral strategies is related to a reduction in women's sex-related risks when drinking. Findings are discussed in terms of alcohol myopia theory. Implications for interventions aimed to reduce higher risk sexual behavior among college students are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Using focus group interviews to identify salient issues concerning college students' alcohol abuse

Despite extensive efforts to decrease alcohol abuse among college students, prevention approaches have had limited success. This study attempted to clarify reasons for this limited success and to identify directions for future interventions by directly interviewing college students on this topic. Five issues were discussed in the focus group interviews: (1) reasons for drinking alcohol, (2) reasons for not drinking alcohol, (3) circumstances surrounding overconsumption of alcohol, (4) topics and methods for prevention, and (5) gender differences in drinking patterns. The focus group interviews were found to be a valid tool for elucidating sensitive aspects of these issues and the relative importance of these issues to each other. The students revealed how susceptible they are to societal pressures to drink alcohol and how the limitations of their intrapersonal skills affect their alcohol consumption, most notably regarding sexuality issues. The authors contend that improving intrapersonal skills should be a major focus of programs to prevent alcohol abuse.     

Alcohol primes, expectancies, and the working self-concept.

Previous research has shown that alcohol consumption can lead to momentary changes in the self-concept (e.g., Steele & Josephs, 1990). In two studies (n = 150), we examined whether the implicit activation of alcohol expectancies (i.e., sociability-related expectancies) would also lead to changes in self-perception. To test this idea, participants first completed a measure of sociability-related alcohol expectancies. In a subsequent laboratory session, participants were exposed to either alcohol-related primes (i.e., pictures or words associated with alcohol) or neutral primes. After the priming task, participants completed an ostensibly unrelated self-concept survey that contained words related to sociability (e.g., “outgoing”) and nonsociability related words (e.g., “clever”). For both studies, results revealed that sociability-related alcohol expectancies were positively associated with sociability-related self-concept ratings for participants exposed to alcohol primes, but not for participants exposed to the neutral primes. Implications for the role implicit self-concept activation may have on drinking behaviors are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ethical ideology and judgments of social psychological research: Multidimensional analysis.

24 undergraduates completed the 1st author's ethics position questionnaire and then compared the ethical similarity of 15 experiments through a series of 105 paired comparisons. Through multidimensional scaling, 3 factors—potential harm to experiment participants, use of manipulative illegitimate procedures, and the ratio between benefits and risks—were identified as the key characteristics associated with moral judgments of social psychological studies. Ss who endorsed different ethical ideologies, however, differed in their emphasis of these factors. "Situationists" emphasized risks relative to benefits and the potential harm to experiment participants. "Absolutists" based their judgments on costs created for participants and the riskiness of the procedures. Judgments by "subjectivists" were associated with the harmfulness, legitimacy, and invasiveness of the procedures. "Exceptionists" emphasized the consequentiality of the research, as well as scientific legitimacy, magnitude of costs, and deception. Findings are in general consistent with a taxonomy of ethical ideologies based on individual differences in relativism and idealism and have implications for current debates concerning the ethics of social psychological research. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Take control of your drinking? and you may not need to quit.

Reviews the book, Take control of your drinking? and you may not need to quit by Michael S. Levy (see record 2007-12140-000). This book is a self-help book explicitly designed for drinkers in the general population. It is written in a conversational, second-person style, and throughout the conversation, Levy encourages readers to be honest with themselves about how alcohol fits into their lives. In return, he adopts a nonjudgmental mentoring role throughout the text. As suggested by the title, Levy's approach includes options for reducing alcohol consumption (moderation) or quitting alcohol use altogether. Although allowing that moderation is a legitimate goal for treatment and/or self-help is still quite controversial in some quarters, the effectiveness of adopting this option for some drinkers is supported by research, some of which is cited in the notes that accompany each chapter. I suspect that the even-handed way that moderation or abstinence goals are treated in the book, along with its plain-spoken writing style and awareness that alcohol problems often exist in a context of other mental health issues, will appeal to any drinker who is curious about their own alcohol use and whether to reduce or quit drinking. Those who choose to engage with the material in the book will be using techniques that are, in general, well-supported by intervention research with problem drinkers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Alcohol treatment changes in coping skills, self-efficacy, and levels of alcohol use and related problems 1 year following treatment initiation.

The relationships among alcohol treatment, coping skills, and self-efficacy in predicting alcohol use and related consequences following treatment initiation were investigated. The participants were 77 men and 65 women who were entering either inpatient or outpatient alcohol treatment. The analyses confirmed predictions that treatment, coping skills, and self-efficacy each contributed significantly to the prediction of 12-month alcohol consumption beyond the variance accounted for by participant control variables. Only self-efficacy explained significant additional variance in the consequences outcome. Mediation analyses of the alcohol consumption variables suggested that treatment effects were not mediated by either coping skills or self-efficacy and that the effects of coping skills were not mediated by self-efficacy. The findings are interpreted as providing partial support for social learning theory approaches. Suggestions for future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comparison of drinking patterns measured by daily reports and timeline follow back.

The major objective of this study was to compare near real-time daily alcohol consumption data over the course of 366 consecutive days with retrospective reports by means of the timeline follow-back (TLFB). Participants (N?=?33) responded for 366 days on an interactive voice response (IVR) system by entering alcohol consumption data daily using the touch-tone pads of their telephones. In-person interviews were conducted every 13 weeks during which participants were administered the TLFB. The correlations between the IVR and TLFB for amount consumed, drinking days, and heavy drinking days were modest. There was a wide variability across participants in their individual correlations for these variables. Participants who were diagnosable with a lifetime DSM-IV alcohol disorder at baseline significantly underreported their drinking compared with participants who were not diagnosable. The authors were unable to ascertain variables that influenced accurate reporting on the TLFB. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Do alcohol expectancies mediate drinking patterns of adults?

Compared the reinforcement expectancies of adult alcoholics with beliefs of 2 other adult populations. 171 participants (mean age 42.8 yrs) in alcohol treatment programs, 65 hospitalized medical patients (mean age 42.6 yrs), and 344 college students (mean age 24 yrs) identified their beliefs about the consequences of alcohol consumption through an alcohol expectancy questionnaire (AEQ). Results indicate that the previously defined AEQ beliefs among nonalcoholic populations identified by S. A. Brown et al (1980) and B. A. Christiansen et al (see record 1982-25609-001) are applicable to alcoholic populations. In the present study, nonalcoholics and alcoholics differed significantly in terms of their alcohol expectancies. In general, alcoholics were found to maintain strong alcohol expectancies, and expectancies increased across and within populations as a function of drinking patterns. Theoretical, research, and clinical implications of these findings and the AEQ are discussed. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Specificity of P3 event-related potential reactivity to alcohol cues in individuals low in alcohol sensitivity.

Recent research using event-related potentials (ERPs) has shown that individuals low in alcohol sensitivity show increased P3 reactivity to alcohol cues (Bartholow, Henry, & Lust, 2007). The current research sought to test the specificity of this effect by including other arousing cues in addition to alcohol, and by controlling for individual differences in trait impulsivity. Forty-seven participants varying in self-reported alcohol sensitivity completed a visual oddball task including neutral, arousing (erotic and adventure-related), and beverage-related images while ERPs were recorded. Low-sensitivity participants showed increased P3 reactivity to alcohol cues relative to their high-sensitivity peers. However, P3 amplitude elicited by all other targets did not differ as a function of alcohol sensitivity levels. Differences in impulsivity and recent alcohol consumption did not account for sensitivity group differences in alcohol cue reactivity. These results point to the specific motivational salience of alcohol cues to individuals at risk for alcohol problems because of low alcohol sensitivity and suggest that P3 reactivity to alcohol cues could be a new endophenotype for alcohol use disorder risk. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Alcohol and depression: Effects on mood and biased processing of self-relevant information.

Alcohol's effects on mood and processing of self-relevant information were studied in a sample of 57 college students (39 men and 18 women). Participants were blocked on level of depression and were randomly assigned to alcohol or placebo conditions. After beverage consumption, participants processed trait adjectives under self-relevant and semantic-processing instructions. Results showed that biased processing of depressed content adjectives by depressed participants under placebo conditions was reversed after consuming alcohol. Further, reduced recall of depressed-content, self-relevant information after alcohol consumption was significantly related to alcohol-enhanced mood in depressed participants. Results are discussed in relation to mechanisms of reinforcement that may link the coexistence of alcohol abuse and affective disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Impulses got the better of me: Alcohol moderates the influence of implicit attitudes toward food cues on eating behavior.

This study shows that alcohol consumption enhances the prediction of candy consumption by implicit attitudes and at the same time decreases the predictive validity of cognitive restraint standards. Female participants were assigned to either an alcohol or a control condition and were then given an opportunity to taste candies. For participants in the alcohol condition, candy consumption was uniquely predicted by previously assessed implicit attitudes toward the candy. In contrast, candy consumption was primarily predicted by cognitive restraint (Three Factor Eating Questionnaire) in the control condition. Moreover, participants who consumed alcohol ate significantly more candy at the group level. These results indicate that alcohol increases the behavioral impact of impulsive determinants on eating behavior while disrupting the behavioral impact of reflective determinants. They further demonstrate that measures of implicit attitudes toward tempting stimuli add incremental validity for the prediction of self-control outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The influence of gender, expectancy, and partner beverage selection on (meta)perceptions in a "blind" dating situation

There is little question that alcohol plays a role in social situations. Most of the research in this area has used a paradigm designed to understand the effects of consuming alcohol on anxiety and social behavior. Most of the previous studies have looked only at situational factors-with limited focus on personality variables, using confederates to control the social reaction that participants received, with drinking generally occurring in a solitary situation. In the present study we were interested in understanding the interpersonal nature of reactions to alcohol consumption. The focus of this study was on the stimulus value of alcohol rather than anticipated or pharmacological effects of alcohol consumption. In large groups, individuals completed cognitive-personality measures assessing typical alcohol consumption, alcohol expectancies, and social anxiety. In the second part of the study, participants were paired with a member of the opposite sex with whom they had no previous contact: perceptions of their partner and metaperceptions were assessed after 4 and 15 minutes (before and after choosing a beverage--beer, soft drinks, etc.). Results indicate that positive alcohol expectancies interact with partner alcohol selection in predicting changes in metaperceptions of friendliness and relaxation. With friendliness, this result was most pronounced in men. These results are discussed in terms of the role alcohol expectancies may play in filtering alcohol relevant environmental information, and the influence of positive alcohol expectancies in mixed-sex drinking situations.     

Extension of the simulated drinking game procedure to multiple drinking games.

The present study extended the Simulated Drinking Game Procedure (SDGP) to obtain information about different types of drinking games. Phase I participants (N = 545) completed online screening questionnaires assessing substance use and drinking game participation. Participants who met the selection criteria for Phase II (N = 92) participated in laboratory sessions that consisted of three different periods of drinking game play. Sixty-two percent (N = 57) of the sample was female. Data from these sessions was used to estimate the peak Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) a participant would achieve if they consumed alcohol while participating in the SDGP. Total consumption and estimated BAC varied as a function of game type. The total consumption and estimated BAC obtained while playing Beer Pong and Memory varied significantly as a function of group. Total ounces consumed while playing Three Man varied significantly as a function of group; however, the variation in estimated BAC obtained while playing Three Man was not significant. Results indicated that estimated BACs were higher for female participants across game type. Previous experience playing the three drinking games had no impact on total drink consumption or estimated BAC obtained while participating in the SDGP. The present study demonstrated that the SDGP can be used to generate estimates of how much alcohol is consumed and the associated obtained BAC during multiple types of drinking games. In order to fully examine whether previous experience factors in to overall alcohol consumption and BAC, future research should extend the SDGP to incorporate laboratory administration of alcohol during drinking game participation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)