Both alcohol advertising and public health campaigns increase alcohol consumption in the short term, and this may be attributable to attentional capture by alcohol-related cues in both types of media. The present studies investigated the association between (a) visual attention to alcohol cues and responsible drinking statements in alcohol advertising and public health campaigns, and (b) next-w...

OBJECTIVE To identify precursors of adolescent alcohol initiation and binge drinking. DESIGN Prospective cohort study. SETTING Self-report questionnaires. PARTICIPANTS A total of 5511 Growing Up Today Study participants aged 11 to 18 years in 1998. Main Exposures Individual, family, and social factors. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES First whole drink of alcohol and binge drinking. RESULTS Betw...

OBJECTIVE Impulsivity is strongly associated with alcohol-related risk-taking behavior, and this association has been found to be mediated by alcohol cognitions. The current study expanded this literature by comparing the relative association of distinct impulsivity traits with a specific risky behavior--drinking and driving. We then tested whether drinking-and-driving expectancies uniquely med...

OBJECTIVE To examine how social contexts of drinking are related to alcohol use disorders, other alcohol-related problems, and depression among college students. METHODS Logistic regression models controlling for drinking frequency measured the association between social context and problems, among 728 current drinkers. RESULTS Drinking for social facilitation was associated with drinking a...

Heavy episodic drinking early in adolescence is associated with increased risk of addiction and other stress-related disorders later in life. This suggests that adolescent alcohol abuse is an early marker of innate vulnerability and/or binge exposure impacts the developing brain to increase vulnerability to these disorders in adulthood. Animal models are ideal for clarifying the relationship be...

Experimental animal models are critical for understanding the genetic, environmental and neurobiological underpinnings of alcohol use disorders. Limited studies investigate alcohol-induced effects on behavior using free-choice paradigms. The aims of the present experiment were to study voluntary alcohol intake using a modified intermittent access paradigm, investigate the effects of voluntary a...

Addiction to alcohol remains a major social and economic problem, in part because of the high motivation for alcohol that humans exhibit and the hazardous binge intake this promotes. Orexin-1-type receptors (OX1Rs) promote reward intake under conditions of strong drives for reward, including excessive alcohol intake. While systemic modulation of OX1Rs can alter alcohol drinking, the brain regio...

Genetic and environmental factors contribute nearly in equal power to the development of alcoholism. Environmental factors, such as negative life events or emotionally disruptive conditions, initiate and promote alcohol drinking and relapse. The endocannabinoid system is involved in hedonic control and modulates stress reactivity. Furthermore, chronic alcohol drinking alters endocannabinoid sig...

Social anxiety more than quadruples the risk of developing an alcohol use disorder, yet it is inconsistently linked to heavy alcohol use. Elucidation of the relation between social anxiety and alcohol use is an important next step in treating and preventing risky drinking. College students routinely face potentially anxiety-provoking social situations (e.g., meeting new people) and socially anx...

UNLABELLED Despite attempts to control college-aged drinking, binge and underage drinking continues at colleges and universities. Although often underutilized, faculty have the potential to influence students' behaviors and attitudes towards drinking. Little information is available pertaining to college faculty drinking patterns, views on drinking, or their influence on college drinking. What ...