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Binge drinking may indicate risk for alcoholism

Binge drinking may be an early sign of risk for alcohol use disorder, according to recent findings.

“Alcohol use disorder has a lifetime prevalence of nearly one in three individuals in the United States,” Joshua L. Gowin, PhD, of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and colleagues wrote. “An important goal is to identify at-risk individuals prior to the development of this disorder so that they can be targeted for early intervention. One way to determine early phenotypic differences in those at risk is to examine behavior at the level of an individual drinking session.”

To determine if risk factors for alcoholism — including family history, male sex, impulsivity, and low response to alcohol — predict binging rates, researchers conducted a cross-sectional study among 150 young social drinkers. Study participants completed a laboratory session in which they self-administered alcohol intravenously.

Participants with a greater percentage of relatives with alcoholism (HR = 1.04; 955 CI, 1.02-1.07) and higher impulsivity (HR = 1.17; 95% CI, 1-1.37) had higher rates of binging throughout the session.

Participants with all three risk factors had the highest rate of binging during the session, compared with those with the lowest risk (HR = 5.27; 95% CI, 1.81-15.3).

“Although most screening tools for alcoholism focus on quantity of consumption across many sessions, focusing on binging and total alcohol exposure during individual drinking sessions may be clinically relevant and may allow for earlier detection of high-risk individuals,” the researchers wrote. “Assessing binging and total alcohol exposure in the laboratory, and eventually in the field when appropriate technology is available, may be a helpful way of selecting individuals who require early intervention. Clinical questions regarding the time course of typical drinking sessions, in addition to standard questions about quantity of alcohol consumed, may help better characterize total alcohol exposure and stratify risk.” – by Amanda Oldt

Disclosures : The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.