Three Studies Link Alcohol and Harmful Effects in Women
Research continues to add to the knowledge about the harmful effects of alcohol on women. A new study of data from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Nurses’ Health Study has found that postmenopausal women who consume even moderate amounts of alcohol may have increased risk of breast cancer. The researchers focused on breast cancer rates in women who reported drinking small amounts of alcohol (less than a glass of beer or wine a day). Although the women’s overall risk of breast cancer was low, they developed the disease at a higher rate than women who were non-drinkers. Information on the study is available at http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-05/gmu-mau051205.php. A study of rats at the Pittsburgh School of Medicine suggests that women metabolize alcohol differently and may be more susceptible than men to alcohol-related liver damage, especially if they also consume a high-fat diet. The findings were presented recently at the annual Digestive Disease Week 2005 meeting in Chicago. To learn more about the study, see a HealthDay News article at http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Healthology/story?id=770034. Finally, a German study of alcoholic women and men published in the May Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research (Vol. 29, pp. 896-901) found a number of gender-specific differences in alcohol dependence. Women alcoholics started drinking later than men and drank less, yet their alcohol-related brain atrophy was comparable to men’s as confirmed by computed tomography. According to the researchers, brain atrophy and other organ damage seem to develop faster in women, which may confirm a higher vulnerability to alcohol among women. For more information, see a BBC News article at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4541281.stm.
WHO to Study Ways to Reduce Alcohol-Related HarmThe World Health Organization (WHO) has adopted a resolution to conduct further scientific studies on ways to reduce alcohol-related harm. The resolution was announced on May 25 during WHO’s annual 10-day assembly. In a Reuters interview, Catherine Le Gales-Camus, WHO assistant director-general for noncommunicable diseases and mental health, stated “Alcohol is now a global problem. Member states are more and more concerned by the use of alcohol among the younger part of the population. New patterns of consumption, binge drinking, are major issues.” A report to the assembly said that alcohol consumption causes at least 1.8 million deaths a year worldwide, including suicides and road accidents blamed on drinking, or 4 percent of deaths and disease. Tobacco causes 4.1 percent of deaths and disease and high blood pressure, 4.4 percent. International experts have found that the most effective measures to reduce alcohol-related problems include a minimum legal age for buying alcohol, government monopoly of retail sales, limited hours for sales, high taxes, and sobriety checks. See http://fullcoverage.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050525/hl_nm/alcohol_study_dc for the Reuters article.
May 2005
New Zealand Considers Returning Drinking Age to 20
According to the New Zealand Herald, a bill to return the legal drinking age to 20 called the “Sale of Liquor (Youth Alcohol Harm Reduction) Bill” was introduced to the New Zealand Parliament for consideration. In 1999, the parliament reduced the drinking age to 18. Studies have since linked the 1999 law change to increased teen hospitalizations for alcohol-related problems. The new bill also would restrict all television alcohol advertising to after 10 pm. See the article at http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?ObjectID=10123936.
Community Efforts Can Reduce Alcohol FatalitiesA newly published study, “Effects on alcohol related fatal crashes of a community based initiative to increase substance abuse treatment and reduce alcohol availability,” tested five communities that participated in the 10-year “Fighting Back” program started in 1992 to reduce substance abuse and related problems. The communities were among a larger group that received grants from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to develop programs or actions targeting alcohol abuse, for example increasing publicly funded treatment, establishing awareness campaigns about treatment services, initiating hospital emergency department alcohol screening and referral, conducting responsible beverage trainings, and enacting ordinances to prohibit public drinking. The Fighting Back communities studied were Kansas City, MO; Milwaukee, WI; San Antonio, TX; Santa Barbara, CA; and Vallejo, CA, all of which had implemented eight or more actions to restrict alcohol availability and expand treatment. For each community, the study researchers assessed the number of fatal crashes both involving alcohol and not involving alcohol during the 10 years before and 10 years after the program started. The numbers in each Fighting Back community were compared with those of two or three other communities of similar demographic composition in the same State. The results were that alcohol-related fatal crashes significantly declined in the five Fighting Back communities during the 10 years of the program. The authors conclude that community interventions to reduce alcohol availability and increase substance abuse treatment can reduce alcohol-related fatal traffic crashes. In a news release, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) Director Ting-Kai Li states, “These results show that concentrated, community-wide interventions can save lives. This is the first study to explore the effect of the combined use of increased individually-oriented substance abuse treatment and environmental strategies to reduce alcohol availability.” The research was led by Dr. Ralph Hingson, Professor at the Boston University School of Public Health and NIAAA Director of the Division of Epidemiology and Prevention Research. NIAAA provided support for the study. The study report appears in the April 2005 Injury Prevention (Vol. 11, pp. 84-90). The NIAAA news release is at http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/press/2005/fatalities.htm. The article abstract is available at http://ip.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/abstract/11/2/84.
February, 2005
Studies Show Alcohol-Related Damage To Adolescent Brains
A report published in the February issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research summarizes findings from human and animal studies that provide mounting evidence of alcohol’s damage to the teenage brain. The study results were presented at the 2004 symposium of the Research Society on Alcoholism. Peter M. Monti, symposium organizer, stated “The adolescent brain is a ‘work in progress’. It is often referred to as ‘plastic’ because it is built to acquire information, adapt, and learn. Alcohol, however, can disrupt the adolescent brain’s ability to learn life skills.” One study using MRI compared the brains of younger boys and girls with those of young women aged 18 to 25. Boys and girls with alcohol use disorders who took a memory test had more brain activity than did a control group of adolescents, although their test scores were similar. However, women aged 18 to 25 who had had an alcohol problem since adolescence and took the same test had less brain activity and did not perform as well as a control group. The findings could mean that the brain of the younger teen with an alcohol problem may be able to compensate to perform a given task, but if the drinking continues, the brain cells may become damaged and unable to compensate. Other research on adult rats that had been “binge drinkers” as adolescents found that their brain structures differed from those of nondrinking rats. Additional studies focused on how to get youths to respond to anti-drinking messages. Brief counseling sessions in the emergency room were shown to result in measurable improvements in drinking and driving as well as in alcohol-related injuries.
An informative news release is available at: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-02/ace-ade020705.php.
January 2005
Driving Under the Influence of Drugs: Per Se Laws
Many states now have per se drug laws. This means in those states, a person may not drive with any detectable amount of a restricted controlled substance in his or her system. A summary of the individual states' Driving Under the Influence of Drugs laws is provided in chart form, through the following link: DUID State Law Chart.
April 2000
A Review of the Literature on the Effects of Low Doses of Alcohol on Driving-Related Skills
Abstract:
A review of the scientific literature regarding the effects of alcohol on driving-related skills was conducted. One hundred and twelve articles - from 1981 to 1997 - were reviewed. Results were indexed by BAC and behavioral area and entered into a database. Two separate analyses were conducted. The first analysis determined the lowest BAC at which impairment is reliably present in driving-related skills. The second analysis determined the thresholds of impairment for each of twelve separate behavioral areas. It was concluded that:
Alcohol impairs some driving skills beginning with any significant departure from zero BAC. By BACs of 0.05 g/dl, the majority of the experimental studies examined reported significant impairment. By 0.08 g/dl, more than 94% of the studies reviewed exhibited skills impairment. Specific performance skills are differentially affected by alcohol. Some skills are significantly impaired by BACs of 0.01 g/dl, while others do not show impairment until BACs of 0.06 g/dl. Discrepancies between the reported BAC threshold of impairment within a behavioral area reflected a lack of standardization of testing methods, instruments, and measures in the studies reviewed. All drivers are expected to experience impairment in some driving-related skills by 0.08 g/dl or less.
This document is available to the U.S. public through the National Technical
Information Service, Springfield, Virginia, 22161. The Report is also available free of charge courtesy of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: View Report