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Across various cultures there are robust stereotypes regarding how alcohol intoxication alters individuals' normative personalities. However, whether these stereotypes are rooted in genuine average effects or in salient, socially-proliferated exemplars remain unclear. The current study tested if differences between sober and intoxicated personality expression can be observed reliably by trained raters during a drinking episode. Participants ( N = 156), half of whom received alcohol, attended laboratory sessions in same-gender friend groups and engaged in activities designed to elicit a range of personality expression. Participants completed self-reports of their "typical" sober and drunk personalities two weeks prior to their sessions and via two short measures during the session. Additionally, participants were recorded and rated by multiple ( Range = 5-17) trained raters using three personality measures. Self-perceptions of sober-to-drunk personality differences were more pervasive than observer-perceptions, but alcohol-induced changes in Extraversion, specifically, were robust across measures and reporters.

Objective: Emotional disorders and alcohol use disorders (AUDs) frequently demonstrate significant 12-month and lifetime comorbid associations. This comorbidity has been incorporated into influential theories of addiction processes that posit direct or indirect causal associations between these disorder categories. There is currently no consensus, however, about the sequencing of these disorders. In this research, longitudinal data from a regionally representative community sample were used to evaluate whether emotional disorders constitute a proximal antecedent, concomitant, or short-term consequence of first episode (or index) AUDs., Method: Participants were 131 persons with index AUD episodes lasting 12 months or more and 131 matched controls. For each participant with an AUD, the presence or absence of an emotional disorder was coded for three time intervals: (a) the 12 months preceding full syndrome AUD episode onset; (b) the last 12 months of the AUD episode; and (c) the 12 months following complete symptom AUD episode offset. These intervals, referenced to participant age, were matched to those of control participants, and emotional disorder rate comparisons subsequently performed both within and between groups., Results: Findings indicated an absence of significant within- or between-subject differences in emotional disorder rates, suggesting that the association between AUDs and emotional disorders is neither directional nor systematic. There was also no indication that the length of the AUD episode increased risk for an emotional disorder in the year following AUD offset., Conclusions: Overall, this research suggests that emotional disorders are generally independent events in relation to the index AUD episode.

Aims: To compare the acute effects of alcohol on set-shifting task performance (relative to sober baseline performance) during ascending and descending limb breath alcohol concentration (BrAC), as well as possible moderation of these effects by baseline individual differences., Design: Shifting performance was tested during an initial baseline and a subsequent drinking session, during which participants were assigned randomly to one of three beverage conditions (alcohol, placebo or control) and one of two BrAC limb conditions [ascending and descending (A/D) or descending-only (D-only)]., Setting: A human experimental laboratory on the University of Missouri campus in Columbia, MO, USA., Participants: A total of 222 moderate-drinking adults (ages 21-30 years) recruited from Columbia, MO and tested between 2010 and 2013., Measurements: The outcome measure was performance on set-shifting tasks under the different beverage and limb conditions. Shifting performance assessed at baseline was a key moderator., Findings: Although performance improved across sessions, this improvement was reduced in the alcohol compared with no-alcohol groups (post-drink latent mean comparison across groups, all Ps ≤ 0.05), and this effect was more pronounced in individuals with lower pre-drink performance (comparison of pre- to post-drink path coefficients across groups, all Ps ≤ 0.05). In the alcohol group, performance was better on descending compared with ascending limb (P ≤ 0.001), but descending limb performance did not differ across the A/D and D-only groups., Conclusions: Practising tasks before drinking moderates the acute effects of alcohol on the ability to switch between tasks. Greater impairment in shifting ability on descending compared with ascending breath alcohol concentration is not related to task practice., (© 2016 Society for the Study of Addiction.)

Peer drinking norms are arguably one of the strongest correlates of adolescent drinking. Prospective studies indicate that adolescents tend to select peers based on drinking (peer selection) and their peers' drinking is associated with changes in adolescent drinking over time (peer socialization). The present study investigated whether the peer selection and socialization processes in adolescent drinking differed as a function of the dopamine receptor D4 (DRD4) variable number tandem repeat genotype in two independent prospective data sets. The first sample was 174 high school students drawn from a two-wave 6-month prospective study. The second sample was 237 college students drawn from a three-wave annual prospective study. Multigroup cross-lagged panel analyses of the high school student sample indicated stronger socialization via peer drinking norms among carriers, whereas analyses of the college student sample indicated stronger drinking-based peer selection in the junior year among carriers, compared to noncarriers. Although replication and meta-analytic synthesis are needed, these findings suggest that in part genetically determined peer selection (carriers of the DRD4 seven-repeat allele tend to associate with peers who have more favorable attitudes toward drinking and greater alcohol use) and peer socialization (carriers' subsequent drinking behaviors are more strongly associated with their peer drinking norms) may differ across adolescent developmental stages.

Research indicates 10% of college student drinkers report deliberately training to increase alcohol tolerance (a diagnostic criterion for alcohol use disorder) to avoid passing out early or to keep up with peers. Given that tolerance training may be considered a harm reduction technique designed to reduce acute aversive consequences, we examined the associations between tolerance training and the use of protective behavioral strategies (PBS) more generally. A cross-sectional survey of 1080 lifetime drinkers was conducted at a large Midwestern university. Of this sample, 5.6% (n=60) reported training to increase their tolerance. Drinkers who endorsed having trained to increase tolerance reported notably more alcohol-related problems than those who reported never training (M adj =51.80 versus M adj =39.30; p<0.0001). Further, participants who endorsed tolerance training reported utilizing significantly fewer PBS (e.g., avoid drinking games) on the Protective Behavioral Strategies Scale (PBSS, Martens et al., 2005) than participants who had never trained (M adj =16.89 versus M adj =18.90; p<0.01). An exception was that drinkers who trained to avoid passing out early used significantly more PBS (e.g., using a designated driver, knowing where your drink is at all times). Despite this, these trainers consumed more alcohol and experienced more alcohol-related harms. The present findings support previous research demonstrating that trainers consume more alcohol than non-trainers, and provide further evidence that deliberately training to increase tolerance is indicative of problematic drinking behavior. Prevention efforts might aim to inform drinkers of the problems associated with deliberately inducing alcohol tolerance, and focus on developing alternative strategies for minimizing acute harm from drinking., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: Contemporary approaches to clinical diagnosis have not adequately exploited state-of-the-art empirical techniques in deriving diagnostic criterion sets that are statistically optimal based on 1) relevant external indicators and 2) replicability across data sets. We provide a proof of concept that optimal criterion sets can be derived with respect to alcohol use disorder (AUD) diagnosis that are both more efficient and precise than current systems., Methods: Using data from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions we selected chronicity (i.e. persistence) of AUD diagnosis and comorbidity of AUD with other disorders as validation criteria on which to optimize the size of the AUD criterion set and the threshold for AUD diagnosis. We used cross-validation and consensus approaches for choosing a final solution., Results: Cross-validation did not produce a solution that replicated across random subsamples or differed from conventional diagnosis. Alternatively, consensus produced a more global solution that was associated with greater validity than "conventional" diagnosis., Conclusion: Such methods, if applied to extant diagnostic criteria and algorithms can generate simpler and more reliable rules and hold promise for greatly reducing misclassification of individuals in both research and applied clinical contexts.

Background: Underage college students who obtain and use false identification (fake ID) are at risk for negative outcomes. However, it is currently unclear how uniquely the fake ID itself serves as a vehicle to subsequent harm (i.e., the "fake ID effect") over and above general and trait-related risk factors (e.g., deviant peers, low self-control)., Methods: To investigate whether the "fake ID effect" would hold after accounting for phenotypic risk, we utilized propensity score matching (PSM) in a cross-sectional sample of 1,454 students, and a longitudinal replication sample of 3,720 undergraduates. Individuals with a fake ID were matched with individuals without a fake ID, in terms of a number of trait-based and social risk factors. These matched groups were then compared on 5 problematic outcomes (i.e., frequent binge drinking, alcohol-related problems, arrests, marijuana use, and hard drug use)., Results: Findings showed that "fake ID effects" were substantially-although not fully-diminished following PSM. The "fake ID effect" remained strongest for alcohol-related arrests. This may relate to issues of enforcement and students' willingness to engage in deviant behavior with a fake ID, or it may be a function of combined processes., Conclusions: Overall, the findings suggest that interventions should not only be aimed at reducing the fake ID-related alcohol access specifically, but should also be aimed more generally toward at-risk youths' access to alcohol. Future research might examine whether fake IDs have their strongest potency as moderators of the effects of risky traits-such as impulsiveness-on drinking outcomes., Competing Interests: The authors report no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2016 by the Research Society on Alcoholism.)

Substance use is highly prevalent in our society, and substance use disorders are comorbid with most psychiatric disorders, including borderline personality disorder (BPD; Grant et al., 2006, 2008). Craving is a fundamental feature of addiction and disorder, yet the contexts in which craving occurs and is associated with substance use is still under-researched. We examined alcohol craving and consumption in a sample of 56 BPD individuals and a comparison group of community drinkers (COM; n = 60) who carried electronic diaries for approximately 21 days. BPD individuals reported more craving than COM individuals in most contexts. Compared to COM individuals, elevated craving in BPD individuals was paralleled by more drinking when at work, at home, and with romantic partners, coworkers, and children. These findings identify contexts of particular relevance to those with BPD and other mood/anxiety disorders in which craving may lead to risky and maladaptive alcohol use.

Background: The Alcohol Use Disorder and Associated Disabilities Interview Schedule-IV (AUDADIS-IV) and AUDADIS-5 are diagnostic interviews used in major epidemiological and other studies of alcohol use disorder (AUD). Much of what we know regarding the prevalence of AUD in the United States is based upon this interview. However, past research and meta-analytic evidence suggest that differential operationalization of the AUD criteria across instruments can lead to differential endorsement of symptoms and resulting AUD diagnosis rates. In particular, studies employing the AUDADIS are observed to have markedly higher endorsement rates of withdrawal than other large epidemiological studies. One explanation for this is that when assessing withdrawal, the AUDADIS combines effects from the morning after drinking with those from the days following, thereby conflating hangover and withdrawal., Methods: This study addresses whether this operationalization confounds rates of endorsement when compared to simpler, less ambiguous hangover or withdrawal stems. To this aim, 497 college student drinkers were randomized into 1 of 3 stem conditions: (i) hangover (n = 164), (ii) withdrawal (n = 167), or (iii) combined AUDADIS-IV (n = 166)., Results: Across conditions, participants were more likely to report the occurrence of each withdrawal symptom in the combined stem condition than in the explicit withdrawal stem condition, but not in the explicit hangover stem condition. Within the combined stem condition, probed symptoms were more likely to be reported as a result of a hangover., Conclusions: The AUDADIS potentially results in false positives for withdrawal, arguably a pathognomonic symptom of alcoholism and, in turn, likely affects rates of the diagnosis of AUD., (Copyright © 2016 by the Research Society on Alcoholism.)

The goal of the present study was to compare etiologically and clinically relevant correlates of lifetime AUD (e.g., alcohol consumption, personality traits, psychiatric disorders) based on a single assessment compared to a cumulative, prospective assessment of lifetime AUD. Data were drawn from the Alcohol, Health and Behavior (AHB; baseline N=489) study, which consisted of a prospective cohort of college students assessed seven times over a 16-year period ([M(SD) age at baseline=18.56 (.97)] and [M(SD) age at final assessment=34.33 (.82)]). The participants were assessed using the Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS) for DSM-III at Waves 1-7 and for DSM-IV at Waves 6-7. A single assessment and cumulative assessments of DSM-III lifetime AUD at Wave 6 (M[SD] age=28.98 [1.03]) were used to predict past-year alcohol related variables (e.g., alcohol consumption, drinking motives, drinking expectancies), personality variables, general functioning, lifetime substance use, and lifetime psychiatric disorders at Wave 7. Significantly larger correlations were found between the cumulative assessment and eight of the 25 etiologically relevant correlates of AUD compared to the single assessment. Further, significant incremental validity of cumulative assessment over single, retrospective assessment was observed for 16 of the 25 covariates. Overall, this study provides further support for the value of using prospective data with multiple assessments when determining lifetime history of disorder., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: The developmental pathways associated with an enhanced risk for future alcohol use disorders (AUDs) continue to be a topic of both interest and debate. In this research, internalizing and externalizing disorders were evaluated as prospective predictors of the index AUD episode onset, separately within three developmental periods: early-to-middle adolescence (age 13.0-17.9), late adolescence (18.0-20.9), and early adulthood (21.0-30.0)., Methods: Participants (N=816) were initially randomly selected from nine high schools in western Oregon and subsequently interviewed on four separate occasions between ages 16 and 30, during which current and past AUDs were assessed as well as a full range of psychiatric disorders associated with internalizing and externalizing psychopathology domains., Results: In adjusted analyses for each of the three developmental periods investigated, externalizing domain psychopathology from the most proximal adjoining developmental period predicted AUD onset. Distal externalizing psychopathology also predicted AUD onset among early adult onset cases. Proximal or distal internalizing psychopathology, in comparison, was not found to be a significant predictor of AUD onset in adjusted analyses for any of the developmental periods examined., Conclusions: Findings overall suggest that externalizing developmental histories are robust predictors of AUD onset within the age range during which index episodes are most likely to occur, and that gender does not moderate this association., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: Item response theory (IRT) analyses of alcohol use disorder (AUD) and other psychological disorders are a predominant method for assessing overall and individual criterion severity for psychiatric diagnosis. However, no investigation has established the consistency of the relative criteria severities across different samples., Method: PubMed/Medline, PsycINFO, Web of Science and ProQuest databases were queried for entries relating to alcohol use and IRT. Study data were extracted using a standardized data entry sheet. Consistency of reported criteria severities across studies was analysed using generalizability theory to estimate generalized intraclass correlations (ICCs)., Results: A total of 451 citations were screened and 34 papers (30 unique samples) included in the research synthesis. The AUD criteria set exhibited low consistency in the ordering of criteria using both traditional [ICC = 0.16, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.06-0.56] and generalized (ICC = 0.18, 95% CI 0.15-0.21) approaches. These results were partially accounted for by previously studied factors such as age and type of sample (e.g. clinical v. community), but the largest source of unreliability was the diagnostic instrument employed., Conclusions: Despite the robust finding of unidimensional structure of AUDs, inconsistency in the relative severities across studies suggests low replicability, challenging the generalizability of findings from any given study. Explicit modeling of well-studied factors like age and sample type is essential and increases the generalizability of findings. Moreover, while the development of structured diagnostic interviews is considered a landmark contribution toward improving psychiatric research, variability across instruments has not been fully appreciated and is substantial.

Rationale: Low sensitivity to alcohol is a well-established risk factor for alcohol use disorder (AUD). However, little is known about how the low sensitivity phenotype is expressed on a fine-grained, momentary level in drinkers' daily experience., Objectives: The objective of the study is to evaluate individual differences in subjective states and appraisals of alcoholic beverages during the ascending limb of real-world drinking episodes., Methods: Social drinkers (N = 398) with varying degrees of alcohol sensitivity as indexed by the Self-Rating of the Effects of Alcohol form (SRE; Schuckit et al. in Addiction 92:979-988, 1997a) recorded diary entries over a 3-week monitoring period (2576 drinking episodes containing 6546 moments). Hierarchical linear modeling was used to evaluate whether individual differences in alcohol sensitivity predicted differing intra-episode estimated blood alcohol concentration (eBAC) trajectories, ratings of subjective states, and drink appraisals., Results: Lower self-reported alcohol sensitivity was associated with consuming "too much, too fast," as indicated by a steeper slope of ascending eBAC. In models adjusted for momentary eBAC level, participants reporting lower alcohol sensitivity at baseline showed blunted subjective intoxication and drink-contingent punishment., Conclusions: The results suggest that low sensitivity to alcohol is associated with a blunting of some forms of subjective feedback (i.e., perceptions of intoxication and punishment) that might typically encourage drinking restraint. This may 'tip the scales' toward excess consumption and could help to explain why a low alcohol sensitivity forecasts AUD.

Background: Variability in sensitivity to the acute effects of alcohol is an important risk factor for the development of alcohol use disorder (AUD). The most commonly used retrospective self-report measure of sensitivity, the Self-Rating of the Effects of Alcohol (SRE) form, queries a limited number of alcohol effects and relies on respondents' ability to recall experiences that might have occurred in the distant past. Here, we investigated the construct validity of an alternative measure that queries a larger number of alcohol effects, the Alcohol Sensitivity Questionnaire (ASQ), and compared it to the SRE in predicting momentary subjective responses to an acute dose of alcohol., Methods: Healthy young adults (N = 423) completed the SRE and the ASQ and then were randomly assigned to consume either alcohol or a placebo beverage (between-subjects manipulation). Stimulation and sedation (Biphasic Alcohol Effects Scale) and subjective intoxication were measured multiple times after drinking., Results: Hierarchical linear models showed that the ASQ reliably predicted each of these outcomes following alcohol but not placebo consumption, provided unique prediction beyond that associated with differences in recent alcohol involvement, and was preferred over the SRE (in terms of model fit) in direct model comparisons of stimulation and sedation., Conclusions: The ASQ compared favorably with the better-known SRE in predicting increased stimulation and reduced sedation following an acute alcohol challenge. The ASQ appears to be a valid self-report measure of alcohol sensitivity and therefore holds promise for identifying individuals at-risk for AUD and related problems., (Copyright © 2016 by the Research Society on Alcoholism.)

Within DSM-5, some diagnoses are now associated with a severity gradient based on the number of diagnostic criteria satisfied. Reasons for questioning the validity of this approach include the implicit assumptions of equal criterion severity and strict additivity of criteria combinations. To assess the implications of heterogeneity of criterion configurations on severity grading, we examined the association between all observed combinations of DSM-5 alcohol use disorder criteria endorsement, at each level of number of criteria endorsed, and multiple validity measures among 22,177 past-year drinkers from Wave 2 of the NESARC. Substantial variability of implied severity across criteria combinations was observed at each level of endorsement, with nontrivial overlap in implied severity across criterion counts. Findings suggest severity indices are at best imprecise and, potentially, misleading. These problems are likely inherent in traditional polythetic approaches to diagnosis and almost certainly applicable to other disorders. Approaches for improving severity grading are proposed.

Background: "Maturing out" of problem drinking is associated with both role transitions (e.g., getting married) and personality development. However, little is known concerning how these 2 mechanisms jointly influence problem-drinking desistance. This study investigated whether salutary effects of role transitions and personality occur at different points in young-adult development and whether they mediate one another's effects., Methods: Participants were initially recruited as first-year undergraduates, with family history of alcoholism overrepresented by design (N = 489). Using 4 waves of data at roughly ages 21, 25, 29, and 34, cross-lagged panel models estimated prospective relations among familial-role transitions (marriage or parenthood), personality (disinhibition, conscientiousness, and neuroticism), and problem drinking., Results: Mixed support was found for the prediction of roles being more strongly associated with earlier maturing out of problem drinking and personality being more strongly associated with later maturing out. Regarding mediation, no evidence was found for the expectation that role effects would be mediated by personality. However, results did support mediation of personality effects by role transitions. Specifically, lower disinhibition and higher conscientiousness in emerging adulthood predicted role adoption, which, in turn, predicted later problem-drinking reductions. Family history of alcoholism also distally influenced these mediation processes., Conclusions: The differential timing of role and personality effects is consistent with the notion of decreasing contextual influences and increasing intrapersonal influences across development. In light of role incompatibility theory, results suggest that, over the course of development, the association of familial roles with problem drinking may increasingly reflect problem-drinking effects on role entry (i.e., role selection) and decreasingly reflect role entry effects on problem drinking (i.e., role socialization). As emerging-adult disinhibition and conscientiousness were associated with an apparent developmental cascade of both direct and indirect effects, findings highlight their potential importance as etiologic mechanisms and intervention targets., (Copyright © 2015 by the Research Society on Alcoholism.)

Aims: (1) To compare affective changes over drinking and non-drinking days among frequent drinkers and (2) to evaluate whether drinkers' expectations influence affective changes and perceived pleasure and relief from drinking., Design: Observational study involving ecological momentary assessments collected via electronic diaries during the course of 3 weeks., Setting: Drinkers' usual settings in Columbia, MO, USA., Participants: A total of 400 adult, frequent drinkers, aged 18-70 years., Measurements: Ecological assessments included morning reports, pre-drinking random prompts, user-initiated first-drink reports and device-prompted follow-ups over drinking episodes. Participants rated positive (enthusiastic, excited, happy) and negative (distressed, sad) affect and perceived pleasure and relief from drinking in real time. A self-report questionnaire completed at baseline evaluated expectancies for enhanced sociability and tension reduction from drinking., Findings: Relative to affective changes over non-drinking days, positive affect increased prior to drinking [95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.004, 0.023], and at first drink (95% CI = 0.238, 0.317), whereas negative affect decreased prior to drinking (95% CI = - 0.007, 0.000) and at first drink (95% CI = - 0.154, - 0.098). Sociability expectancies augmented increases in positive affect prior to drinking (95% CI = 0.009, 0.027) and at first drink (95% CI = 0.017, 0.169). Sociability expectancies also enhanced perceived pleasure from first drinks (95% CI = 0.046, 0.318). Tension-reduction expectancies attenuated decreases in negative affect at first drink (95% CI = - 0.133, - 0.029), but augmented perceived relief from first drinks (95% CI = 0.001, 0.304)., Conclusions: Although theoretical models tend to focus on negative affective outcomes of drinking, changes in positive affect prior to drinking and early in drinking episodes are important for maintaining drinking behavior. Frequent drinkers' expectations for enhanced sociability or tension reduction from drinking influence their affective experiences over drinking days and perceptions of pleasure and relief from drinking., (© 2015 Society for the Study of Addiction.)

Impulsivity critically relates to many psychiatric disorders. Given the multifaceted construct that impulsivity represents, defining core aspects of impulsivity is vital for the assessment and understanding of clinical conditions. Choice impulsivity (CI), involving the preferential selection of smaller sooner rewards over larger later rewards, represents one important type of impulsivity. The International Society for Research on Impulsivity (InSRI) convened to discuss the definition and assessment of CI and provide recommendations regarding measurement across species. Commonly used preclinical and clinical CI behavioral tasks are described, and considerations for each task are provided to guide CI task selection. Differences in assessment of CI (self-report, behavioral) and calculating CI indices (e.g., area-under-the-curve, indifference point, and steepness of discounting curve) are discussed along with properties of specific behavioral tasks used in preclinical and clinical settings. The InSRI group recommends inclusion of measures of CI in human studies examining impulsivity. Animal studies examining impulsivity should also include assessments of CI and these measures should be harmonized in accordance with human studies of the disorders being modeled in the preclinical investigations. The choice of specific CI measures to be included should be based on the goals of the study and existing preclinical and clinical literature using established CI measures., ((c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).)

A low level of response to alcohol is considered a significant risk factor for alcohol use disorder. Survey measures of this construct assess the number of drinks required to experience various alcohol effects, so data will be missing for effects participants have not experienced. Furthermore, missingness will likely be more common for items with higher means, as more severe effects are likely experienced both less commonly and at higher consumption levels. We explored whether these atypical characteristics of response-to-alcohol survey data cause problems when using conventional person-mean imputation scoring. This scoring approach involves averaging across nonmissing items for each participant, implicitly assuming that missing items have similar distributional properties (e.g., means) as nonmissing items. Analyses used data from the most commonly utilized response-to-alcohol survey measure: The Self-Rating of the Effects of Alcohol Scale (SRE). Results (a) revealed a strong relationship between higher item means and greater item missingness, (b) established that this relation causes person-mean imputation to produce more downwardly biased response-to-alcohol summary scores for participants with more missing data, (c) established that this induced a spurious relationship between higher response-to-alcohol summary scores and higher alcohol-effect endorsement (i.e., the number of SRE alcohol effects experienced), and (d) found that these biases can be reduced with 2 alternative scoring approaches. We discuss these and other potential problems with person-mean imputation, and common and unique advantages of the 2 alternative approaches. We consider generalizability, including how the problems shown here may vary in practical significance across different populations and measures. (PsycINFO Database Record, ((c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).)

Objective: Naltrexone, an opioid antagonist, may facilitate reduction in drinking among young adults. We compared the efficacy and safety of naltrexone administered daily plus targeted dosing with placebo to reduce drinking in young adults who engage in heavy drinking., Method: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study was conducted in an outpatient research center in March 2008-January 2012. Participants were aged 18-25 years and reported ≥ 4 heavy drinking days in the prior 4 weeks. Interventions included naltrexone 25 mg daily plus 25 mg targeted (at most daily) in anticipation of drinking (n = 61) or daily/targeted placebo (n = 67). All participants received a personalized feedback session and brief counseling every other week. Primary outcomes were percent heavy drinking days and percent days abstinent over the 8-week treatment period. Secondary outcomes included number of drinks per drinking day and percentage of days with estimated blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels ≥ 0.08 g/dL., Results: Of 140 randomized patients, 128 began treatment, comprising the evaluable sample. During treatment, percent heavy drinking days (naltrexone: mean = 21.60, SD = 16.05; placebo: mean = 22.90, SD = 13.20) (P = .58) and percent days abstinent (naltrexone: mean = 56.60, SD = 22.52; placebo: mean = 62.50, SD = 15.75) (P = .39) did not differ by group. Naltrexone significantly reduced the number of drinks per drinking day (naltrexone: mean = 4.90, SD = 2.28; placebo: mean = 5.90, SD = 2.51) (P = .009) and percentage of drinking days with estimated BAC ≥ 0.08 g/dL (naltrexone: mean = 35.4, SD = 28.40; placebo: mean = 45.7, SD = 26.80) (P = .042). There were no serious adverse events. Sleepiness was more common with naltrexone., Conclusions: Naltrexone did not reduce frequency of drinking or heavy drinking days, but reduced secondary measures of drinking intensity. While effects were modest, the risk-benefit ratio favors offering naltrexone to help young adult heavy drinkers reduce the amount of alcohol they drink., Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00568958., (© Copyright 2015 Physicians Postgraduate Press, Inc.)

Studying how genetic predispositions come together with environmental factors to contribute to complex behavioral outcomes has great potential for advancing the understanding of the development of psychopathology. It represents a clear theoretical advance over studying these factors in isolation. However, research at the intersection of multiple fields creates many challenges. We review several reasons why the rapidly expanding candidate gene-environment interaction (cG×E) literature should be considered with a degree of caution. We discuss lessons learned about candidate gene main effects from the evolving genetics literature and how these inform the study of cG×E. We review the importance of the measurement of the gene and environment of interest in cG×E studies. We discuss statistical concerns with modeling cG×E that are frequently overlooked. Furthermore, we review other challenges that have likely contributed to the cG×E literature being difficult to interpret, including low power and publication bias. Many of these issues are similar to other concerns about research integrity (e.g., high false-positive rates) that have received increasing attention in the social sciences. We provide recommendations for rigorous research practices for cG×E studies that we believe will advance its potential to contribute more robustly to the understanding of complex behavioral phenotypes., (© The Author(s) 2014.)

There is some evidence that college student drinkers may continue drinking in the face of adverse consequences. We examined 2 hypotheses: (a) that this seemingly pathological behavior is a phenomenon of university life, occurring with consistency throughout the entirety of college, and (b) that individuals accumulate these consequences over multiple semesters in college. A sample of 3,720 students from a large Midwestern university was asked to complete surveys the summer before college and every semester thereafter for 4 years. Results showed that certain drinking-related consequences (e.g., blackouts, regretted sexual experiences) consistently predicted continued frequent heavy drinking in the following semester, even after controlling for sex, race, age, and previous-semester frequent heavy drinking (range of odds ratio = 1.17 to 1.45 across semesters, p < .01). Such potent consequences may predict subsequent drinking for a number of possible reasons that may be examined and addressed as they would pertain to specific protective behavioral strategy-related and cognitive interventions. Furthermore, consequences were accumulated over multiple semesters by notable proportions of students. For example, 13.8% of students reported blacking out 5 time-points or more--describing a full half or more of their college careers. Experimental studies which aim to modify students' perceptions of norms associated with these consequences may aid in developing interventions to reduce the burden of harm to students. In the broader context, and given the prevalence of students' accumulation of consequences, future study might aim to determine how and in what ways these findings describe either pathological or normative processes.

Research consistently shows that individuals high in impulsivity are at increased risk for excessive alcohol use and alcohol-related problems including alcohol use disorders (AUDs). Recent theorizing posits that working memory (WM) ability might moderate this association, but extant studies have suffered from methodological shortcomings, particularly mischaracterizing WM as a single, unitary construct and using only cross-sectional designs. This paper reports two studies that attempted to replicate and extend previous investigations of the relationship between WM, impulsivity, and alcohol involvement using two independent samples. Study 1 used a large (N=489 at baseline), prospective cohort of college students at high and low risk for AUD to investigate interactions between WM capacity and impulsivity on cross-sectional and prospective alcohol involvement. Study 2 used a large (N=420), cross-sectional sample of participants in an alcohol challenge study to investigate similar interactions between WM updating and impulsivity on recent alcohol involvement. Whereas Study 1 found that WM capacity moderates the relationship between some measures of impulsivity and alcohol involvement, with effects prospectively predicting alcohol involvement for up to three years, Study 2 did not find similar moderation effects when using measures of WM updating. These findings highlight the multifaceted nature of WM, which is often overlooked in the alcohol and impulsivity literature., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Aims: This commentary critically evaluates the use of substance-related negative psychosocial and health consequences to define and diagnose alcohol and other substance use disorders., Methods: Narrative review., Results: The consequences of substance use cause much suffering and are major public health and economic problems. However, there are a number of conceptual and measurement problems with using consequences as diagnostic criteria for substance disorders. Data indicate that substance-related consequences introduce systematic bias and degrade the validity of diagnostic systems., Conclusions: Negative psychosocial and health consequences of substance use should play a fundamentally reduced role in modern diagnostic systems for, and definitions of, addictive disorders., (© 2014 Society for the Study of Addiction.)

Competing Interests: Declaration of interests None.

The purpose of this study was to examine whether published findings regarding the association of personality disorders (PDs) with the persistence of substance use disorders (SUDs) are attributable to an artifact due to time of assessment of the PD. Two previous studies analyzed data from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) and found that Antisocial PD, Schizotypal PD, and Borderline PD are unique predictors of SUDs. However, a design limitation in NESARC (assessment of PDs at different waves) can potentially compromise these findings. To assess the influence of time of assessment of PDs and to identify associations that might be robust to time of assessment, we compared the association of PDs with 2 estimates of SUD persistence that were based on different populations at risk: (a) among those who were diagnosed with SUD at baseline, the proportion who continued to meet full criteria at follow-up ("prediction"); and (b) among those who were diagnosed with SUD at follow-up, the proportion who met full criteria at baseline ("postdiction"). Differences between prediction and postdiction revealed a robust pattern of higher odds ratios for postdiction among PDs assessed at baseline, and lower odds ratios for postdiction among PDs assessed at follow-up. All published significant associations between PDs and persistence of SUDs became nonsignificant in the postdiction analyses, with the exception of obsessive-compulsive PD predicting nicotine dependence persistence. The present results raise serious doubts about the validity of published findings on PDs and SUD persistence from the NESARC. Design limitations in NESARC preclude a direct comparison among PDs measured at different waves.

This study provides estimates of the prevalence and demographic features of borderline personality disorder (BPD) in a community sample as well as BPD comorbidity rates with Axis I and II disorders. In addition, the authors provide data on general functioning and treatment seeking among individuals with BPD. Data from 34,481 participants in the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) were analyzed. Results suggest that 2.7% of adults in the United States meet diagnostic criteria for BPD, with slightly higher rates of the disorder in females, people in lower income brackets, people younger than 30, and individuals who are separated or divorced. Racial/ethnic differences were evident, with Native Americans (5.0%) and Blacks (3.5%) having significantly higher rates of the disorder, on average, and Asians having significantly lower rates (1.2%). Individuals with a BPD diagnosis were likely to have co-occurring lifetime mood disorders, anxiety disorders, substance use disorders, and other personality disorders. Specifically, 84.8% of individuals with BPD also had a lifetime anxiety disorder, 82.7% had a lifetime mood disorder/episode, and 78.2% were diagnosed with a lifetime substance use disorder. Individuals with BPD showed significant impairment in functioning and were highly likely to seek therapy or receive medication for mental health concerns.

The need for comprehensive analysis to compare and combine data across multiple studies in order to validate and extend results is widely recognized. This paper aims to assess the extent of data compatibility in the substance abuse and addiction (SAA) sciences through an examination of measure commonality, defined as the use of similar measures, across grants funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). Data were extracted from applications of funded, active grants involving human-subjects research in four scientific areas (epidemiology, prevention, services, and treatment) and six frequently assessed scientific domains. A total of 548 distinct measures were cited across 141 randomly sampled applications. Commonality, as assessed by density (range of 0-1) of shared measurement, was examined. Results showed that commonality was low and varied by domain/area. Commonality was most prominent for (1) diagnostic interviews (structured and semi-structured) for substance use disorders and psychopathology (density of 0.88), followed by (2) scales to assess dimensions of substance use problems and disorders (0.70), (3) scales to assess dimensions of affect and psychopathology (0.69), (4) measures of substance use quantity and frequency (0.62), (5) measures of personality traits (0.40), and (6) assessments of cognitive/neurologic ability (0.22). The areas of prevention (density of 0.41) and treatment (0.42) had greater commonality than epidemiology (0.36) and services (0.32). To address the lack of measure commonality, NIDA and its scientific partners recommend and provide common measures for SAA researchers within the PhenX Toolkit., (Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.)

Alcohol use can be understood as a strategic behavior, such that people choose to drink based on the anticipated affective changes produced by drinking relative to those produced by alternative behaviors. This study investigated whether people who report drinking for specific reasons via the Drinking Motives Questionnaire-Revised (DMQ-R; Cooper, 1994) actually experience the alcohol effects they purportedly seek. As a secondary goal, we examined relations between drinking motives and indices of the amount of alcohol consumed. Data were drawn from 3,272 drinking episodes logged by 393 community-recruited drinkers during a 21-day Ecological Momentary Assessment investigation. After accounting for selected covariates, DMQ-R enhancement motives uniquely predicted real-time reports of enhanced drinking pleasure. DMQ-R coping motives were associated with reports of increased drinking-contingent relief and punishment. Enhancement motives uniquely predicted consuming more drinks per episode and higher peak intra-episode estimated blood alcohol concentration. The findings extend the evidence for the validity of the DMQ-R motive scores by demonstrating that internal drinking motives (enhancement and coping) are related to the experienced outcomes of drinking in the manner anticipated by theory.

Existing literature supports the five-factor model (FFM) of personality (i.e., Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and Intellect or Openness) as a comprehensive representation of stable aspects of mood, affect, and behavior. This study evaluated the FFM as a framework for both self-perceptions of drunkenness (i.e., individual changes in mood, affect, and behavior associated with one's own intoxication), as well "drinking buddies'" perceptions of their friends' drunkenness (i.e., changes in mood, affect, and behavior associated with friends' intoxication) and the association of reported sober-to-drunk differences with negative alcohol-related consequences. College-student drinkers (N = 374; 187 drinking buddy pairs) reported on their sober and drunk levels of the 5 factors, as well as those of their drinking buddies. Buddies completed parallel assessments for themselves and their friends to ensure rater agreement. All participants completed assessments of harmful alcohol outcomes experienced within the past year. Regardless of reporter, differences between drunken and sober states were found across all 5 factors and agreement between self and informant reports was consistently significant and comparable across sober and drunk conditions. Low levels of drunk Conscientiousness and drunk Emotional Stability were associated with experiencing more alcohol-related consequences, even when controlling for sober factor levels and binge-drinking frequency. Findings support the use of the FFM as a clinically relevant framework for organizing differences in personality expression associated with intoxication and the validity of self-reports of drunk personality., (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.)

Background: Measures of hangover are associated with current and future problematic alcohol use. At present, it is not known whether these associations reflect any direct influence of hangover events on near-term drinking behaviors. The current study aimed to determine whether hangover following a drinking episode influences time to next drink (TTND) and, if so, to determine the direction of this effect and identify any moderating personal or contextual factors., Methods: Community-recruited, frequent drinkers oversampled for current smoking (N = 386) carried electronic diaries for 21 days, reporting on drinking behaviors and other experiences. Survival analysis was used to model data from 2,276 drinking episodes, including 463 episodes that were followed by self-reported hangover in morning diary entries., Results: When tested as the sole predictor in a survival model, hangover was associated with increased TTND. The median survival time was approximately 6 hours longer after episodes with hangovers compared to those without. In a multivariate model, hangover was only significant in the presence of interaction effects involving craving at the end of the index drinking episode and the occurrence of financial stressors. Additional predictors of TTND in the final multivariate model included age, lifetime alcohol use disorder diagnosis, typical drinking frequency, day of the week, and morning reports of craving, negative affect, and stressors after the index episode. There was no association between morning reports of hangover and contemporaneous diary ratings of likelihood of drinking later the same day., Conclusions: The findings suggest that hangover has, at best, a modest or inconsistent influence on the timing of subsequent alcohol use among frequent drinkers., (Copyright © 2014 by the Research Society on Alcoholism.)

Objective: Some individuals will not meet criteria for a lifetime alcohol use disorder (AUD) at a baseline assessment but will at a follow-up measurement, but not because the disorder began after the initial evaluation. Despite several research implications, this type of unreliability of lifetime AUD estimates has not been studied extensively. The present study investigated the extent of false negatives in the assessment of lifetime AUDs using longitudinal data., Method: A prospective cohort of college freshmen (baseline N = 489) were assessed seven times between ages 18 and 34 years using the Diagnostic Interview Schedule. Individuals were categorized as false negatives at the index assessment using a retrospective (using Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third Edition [DSM-III], and DSM-IV data), a prospective (using DSM-III data only), and a combined approach (using DSM-III data only)., Results: For DSM-IV, of the 29 ostensible new onsets at a follow-up 5 years later (age approximately 34 years), 28 (96%) reported meeting AUD criteria before the index assessment (age approximately 29 years). For DSM-III, of the 25 ostensible new onsets, the retrospective, prospective, and combined approaches categorized 18 (72%) individuals as false negatives at the index assessment., Conclusions: These findings further demonstrate sensitivity issues with lifetime AUD assessments and call into question the validity of "onset" cases that rely on only two waves of data, especially when the follow-up assessment fails to reassess lifetime fully (i.e., across the entire drinking history).

Of all the personality traits associated with problematic alcohol involvement, traits related to impulsivity appear to show the most robust relations to alcohol use and alcohol-related problems. This article reviews both seminal articles that focus on broadband measures of impulsivity and newer research linking more specific impulsivity-related traits to the development and course of problematic alcohol involvement, with a specific focus on self-report measures of impulsivity-related traits. Specifically, empirical support for different theoretical models that account for the overlap between impulsivity-related traits and problematic alcohol involvement is discussed, including current limitations of existing research. Recent studies suggest that specific impulsivity constructs relate to distinct aspects of alcohol-related behavior. Further, there is emerging evidence that problematic alcohol use and impulsivity-related traits are dynamically related, such that changes in these constructs appear to correlate during specific developmental periods. We close by discussing potential research directions that may provide increased clarity in understanding the impulsivity-alcohol relation., Competing Interests: Conflict of Interest Andrew K. Littlefield, Angela K. Stevens, and Kenneth J. Sher declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Recent studies using data from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) have found that some personality disorders (PDs) increase the persistence of several Axis I disorders. However, these effects are potentially confounded with the data collection wave in which PDs were assessed. Our aim was to extend published analyses to the case of anxiety disorders and to determine the robustness of the associations to analyses examining time-of-measurement effects. Persistence of anxiety disorders was defined either as follow-up diagnosis among participants diagnosed at baseline ("prediction") or baseline diagnosis among participants diagnosed at follow-up ("post-diction"). Results revealed a robust pattern of higher odds ratios for post-diction among PDs assessed at baseline, and lower odds ratios for post-diction among PDs assessed at follow-up, suggesting a time of measurement artifact. Although only 4% of associations were robust to both predictive and post-dictive analyses, these were consistent with previous research., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: Prior research indicates that assessments of lifetime alcohol use disorders (AUDs) show low sensitivity and are unreliable when assessed by a single, retrospective interview. This study sought to replicate and extend previous research by calculating the lifetime prevalence rate of AUDs using both single retrospective assessments of lifetime diagnosis and repeated assessments of both lifetime and past-year diagnoses over a 16-year period within the same high-risk sample. In addition, this study examined factors that contributed to the consistency in reporting lifetime AUDs over time., Methods: Using prospective data, the reliability and validity of lifetime estimates of alcohol dependence and AUD were examined in several ways. Data were drawn from a cohort of young adults at high and low risk for alcoholism, originally ascertained as first-time college freshmen (N = 489 at baseline) at a large, public university and assessed over 16 years., Results: Compared with using a single, lifetime retrospective assessment of DSM-III disorders assessed at approximately age 34, lifetime estimates derived from using multiple, prospective assessments of both past-year and lifetime AUD were substantially higher (25% single lifetime vs. 41% cumulative past-year vs. 46% cumulative lifetime). This pattern of findings was also found when conducting these comparisons at the symptom level. Further, these results suggest that some factors (e.g., symptoms endorsed, prior consistency in reporting of a lifetime AUD, and family history status) are associated with the consistency in reporting lifetime AUDs over time., Conclusions: Based on these findings, lifetime diagnoses using a single measurement occasion should be interpreted with considerable caution given they appear to produce potentially large prevalence underestimates. These results provide further insight into the extent and nature of the reliability and validity problem with lifetime AUDs., (Copyright © 2013 by the Research Society on Alcoholism.)

Background: There is evidence that measures of alcohol consumption, dependence and abuse are valid indicators of qualitatively different subtypes of alcohol involvement yet also fall along a continuum. The present study attempts to resolve the extent to which variations in alcohol involvement reflect a difference in kind versus a difference in degree., Method: Data were taken from the 2001-2002 National Epidemiologic Survey of Alcohol and Related Conditions. The sample (51% male; 72% white/non-Hispanic) included respondents reporting past 12-month drinking at both waves (wave 1: n = 33644; wave 2: n = 25186). We compared factor mixture models (FMMs), a hybrid of common factor analysis (FA) and latent class analysis (LCA), against FA and LCA models using past 12-month alcohol use disorder (AUD) criteria and five indicators of alcohol consumption reflecting frequency and heaviness of drinking., Results: Model comparison revealed that the best-fitting model at wave 1 was a one-factor four-class FMM, with classes primarily varying across dependence and consumption indices. The model was replicated using wave 2 data, and validated against AUD and dependence diagnoses. Class stability from waves 1 to 2 was moderate, with greatest agreement for the infrequent drinking class. Within-class associations in the underlying latent factor also revealed modest agreement over time., Conclusions: There is evidence that alcohol involvement can be considered both categorical and continuous, with responses reduced to four patterns that quantitatively vary along a single dimension. Nosologists may consider hybrid approaches involving groups that vary in pattern of consumption and dependence symptomatology as well as variation of severity within group.

Cox, Clara, Worobec, and Grant (2012) recently presented results from a series of analyses aimed at identifying the factor structure underlying the DSM-IV-TR (APA, 2000) personality diagnoses assessed in the large NESARC study. Cox et al. (2012) concluded that the best fitting model was one that modeled three lower-order factors (the three clusters of PDs as outlined by DSM-IV-TR), which in turn loaded on a single PD higher-order factor. Our reanalyses of the NESARC Wave 1 and Wave 2 data for personality disorder diagnoses revealed that the best fitting model was that of a general PD factor that spans each of the ten DSM-IV PD diagnoses, and our reanalyses do not support the three-cluster hierarchical structure outlined by Cox et al. (2012) and DSM-IV-TR. Finally, we note the importance of modeling the Wave 2 assessment method factor in analyses of NESARC PD data.

Background: Examining the natural language college students use to describe various levels of intoxication can provide important insight into subjective perceptions of college alcohol use. Previous research (Levitt et al., Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2009; 33: 448) has shown that intoxication terms reflect moderate and heavy levels of intoxication and that self-use of these terms differs by gender among college students. However, it is still unknown whether these terms similarly apply to other individuals and, if so, whether similar gender differences exist., Methods: To address these issues, the current study examined the application of intoxication terms to characters in experimentally manipulated vignettes of naturalistic drinking situations within a sample of university undergraduates (n = 145)., Results: Findings supported and extended previous research by showing that other-directed applications of intoxication terms are similar to self-directed applications and depend on the gender of both the target and the user. Specifically, moderate intoxication terms were applied to and from women more than men, even when the character was heavily intoxicated, whereas heavy intoxication terms were applied to and from men more than women., Conclusions: The findings suggest that gender differences in the application of intoxication terms are other-directed as well as self-directed and that intoxication language can inform gender-specific prevention and intervention efforts targeting problematic alcohol use among college students., (Copyright © 2013 by the Research Society on Alcoholism.)

Objectives: Our aim was to determine if the decrease in drug use disorders with age is attributable to changes in persistence, as implied by the notion of maturing out. Also, we examined the association between role transitions and persistence, recurrence, and new onset of drug use disorders., Methods: We performed secondary analysis of the 2 waves of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions data (baseline assessment 2001-2002, follow-up conducted 2004-2005). We conducted logistic regressions and multinomial logistic regression to determine the effect of age on wave 2 diagnosis status, as well as the interaction between age and role transitions., Results: Rates of persistence were stable over the life span, whereas rates of new onset and recurrence decreased with age. Changes in parenthood, marital, and employment status were associated with persistence, new onset, and recurrence. We found an interaction between marital status and age., Conclusions: Our findings challenge commonly held notions that the age-related decrease in drug use disorders is attributable to an increase in persistence, and that the effects of role transitions are stronger during young, compared with middle and older, adulthood.

The last 25 years have seen significant advances in our conceptualization of alcohol use and alcohol use disorders within a developmental framework, along with advances in our empirical understanding that have been potentiated by advances in quantitative methods. These include advances in understanding the heterogeneity of trajectories of alcohol outcomes; new insights about early childhood antecedents, and adolescence and emerging adulthood as important developmental periods for alcohol outcomes; a more nuanced understanding of the influences of developmental transitions, and their timing and contexts; a greater appreciation for the importance of considering multiple levels of analysis (including an increasing number of genetically informative studies); a continuing focus on studying multiple pathways underlying alcohol outcomes; and an increasing focus on studying the effects of alcohol exposure on future development. The current paper reviews these advances and suggests directions for future study.

We describe a new antifouling surface coating, based on aggregation of a short amphiphilic four-armed PEG-dopamine polymer into particles and on surface binding by catechol chemistry. An unbroken and smooth polymeric coating layer with an average thickness of approximately 4 μm was formed on top of titanium oxide surfaces by a single step reaction. Coatings conferred excellent resistance to protein adhesion. Cell attachment was completely prevented for at least eight weeks, although the membranes themselves did not appear to be intrinsically cytotoxic. When linear PEG or four-armed PEG of higher molecular weight were used, the resulting coatings were inferior in thickness and in preventing protein adhesion. This coating method has potential applicability for biomedical devices susceptible to fouling after implantation.

Aims: This study used a person-centered approach to test whether drinking motive typologies could be identified., Design: Longitudinal study of college students within the intensive multivariate prospective alcohol college-transitions (IMPACTS) data set., Setting: University campus in the United States., Participants: University students (baseline n reporting alcohol motives = 2158; baseline age = 18.60 years old)., Measurements: The drinking motives questionnaire-revised (DMQ-R)., Findings: Using Steinley & Brusco's cluster analysis approach [based on the theoretical ratio expected between the within sum of squares and the total sum of squares when the data are divided into two clusters when no cluster structure is present; the cut-off for the ratio is 0.25 for uniform (multivariate uniform) distributions and 0.36 for normal (multivariate normal) distributions], we examined whether there was evidence for distinct clusters of individuals that differed on their overall level of motives to drink. We tested the fit of a one-group (cluster) solution compared to multi-cluster solutions. Both cross-sectionally and prospectively, the data could not be partitioned into two or more clusters [regardless of whether the cut-off assuming a multivariate uniform distribution (i.e. 0.25) or the more liberal multivariate normal distribution (i.e., 0.36) was used]. These findings showed that enhancement and coping drinkers do not form two distinct groups but, rather, these motives exist on a continuum such that individuals who are high in one internal motive tend to be high in the other motive., Conclusions: Coping and enhancement drinkers do not form two distinct groups. Variable-centered approaches to drinking motives may be a better alternative to classifying all drinkers as either enhancement or coping drinkers for both clinical and research endeavors., (© 2012 The Authors, Addiction © 2012 Society for the Study of Addiction.)

Objective: Cross-sectional data show that college athletes consume more alcohol and experience more general alcohol-related problems than those not participating in athletics. To our knowledge, the current study is the first to use a longitudinal design to examine the extent to which the course of drinking and alcohol-related problems relates to involvement in intercollegiate athletics, including transitioning into and out of athletic involvement., Method: Participants were drawn from a sample of 3,720 college students from the Intensive Multivariate Prospective Alcohol College-Transitions Study who completed a survey every semester through their fourth year. Four groups were created based on athletic involvement status at baseline (freshman year) and follow-up (senior year): nonathlete, nonathlete (no reported athletic involvement at either time point), nonathlete, athlete (nonathlete at freshman year, athlete at senior year), athlete, nonathlete (athlete at freshman year, nonathlete at senior year), and athlete, athlete (athlete at freshman year, athlete at senior year)., Results: A series of repeated measures analyses were then conducted to test for developmental differences among the athlete groups involving alcohol consumption and alcohol-related problems. Although findings differed as a function of alcohol outcome and comparison among various groups with differing athletic involvement, the general pattern of results showed that individuals who were more athletically involved demonstrated sharper increases in problem drinking (i.e., heavy drinking, frequency of intoxication, alcohol-related problems) during the college years., Conclusions: These findings highlight the apparent risk associated with participation in intercollegiate athletics on college drinking.

Objective: The current investigation tested whether low sensitivity to alcohol, as measured by the Self-Rating of the Effects of Alcohol (SRE) form, is associated with hangover occurrence or resistance, two potentially important predictors of later problematic drinking outcomes., Method: Drinkers who reported using alcohol at least four times in the past month (N = 402) completed the SRE at baseline and used ecological momentary assessment methods with an electronic diary to record drinking behaviors and related experiences over 21 days. Each morning, the diary assessed prior-night drinking behaviors and the presence of current hangover., Results: After adjustments for sex, body weight, age, and smoking status, higher SRE scores (indicating lower alcohol sensitivity) predicted hangover occurrence on postdrinking mornings (odds ratio [OR] = 1.24 per interquartile range [IQR], p = .003). However, when the number of drinks consumed in the drinking episode was covaried, SRE scores were negatively associated with hangover (OR = 0.67 per IQR, p <.001). An interaction between SRE scores and the number of drinks consumed indicated that low-sensitivity drinkers tend to be differentially resistant to hangover at a given number of drinks. Higher SRE scores were associated with consuming more drinks on average (generalized estimating equations coefficient = 2.20 per IQR, p <.001)., Conclusions: Individuals lower in alcohol sensitivity appear to be more resistant to hangovers per unit of alcohol. However, they are also more likely to engage in excessive drinking, and this may account for their increased odds of experiencing hangover during an arbitrary monitoring period. Heavy consumption, hangover resistance, and hangover frequency may each be manifestations of low sensitivity to alcohol, an established risk factor for alcohol use disorder.

We examined the latent structure underlying the criteria for DSM-IV-TR (American Psychiatric Association, 2000, Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed., text revision). Washington, DC: Author.) personality disorders in a large nationally representative sample of U.S. adults. Personality disorder symptom data were collected using a structured diagnostic interview from approximately 35,000 adults assessed over two waves of data collection in the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions. Our analyses suggested that a seven-factor solution provided the best fit for the data, and these factors were marked primarily by one or at most two personality disorder criteria sets. A series of regression analyses that used external validators tapping Axis I psychopathology, treatment for mental health problems, functioning scores, interpersonal conflict, and suicidal ideation and behavior provided support for the seven-factor solution. We discuss these findings in the context of previous studies that have examined the structure underlying the personality disorder criteria as well as the current proposals for DSM-5 personality disorders., ((PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).)

Rationale: Tobacco and alcohol are frequently used together, and this may be partly explained by a distinct profile of subjective effects associated with co-administration. Ecological momentary assessment studies have examined effects of naturally occurring co-use, but, to date, have not assessed differing effects as alcohol levels rise and fall., Objectives: The objective of the study was to describe subjective states and appraisals of cigarette and alcohol effects reported during the entirety of real-world drinking episodes., Methods: Currently-smoking frequent drinkers (N = 255) carried electronic diaries for 21 days. Analyses focused on reports made during 2,046 drinking episodes. Signaled prompts intensively oversampled moments in the hours following consumption of the first drink in an episode. Multilevel regression analyses were used to predict ratings of buzz, dizziness, excitement, and sluggishness as a function of person-level and contextual covariates, estimated blood alcohol concentration (eBAC) level, ascending vs. descending eBAC, smoking, and their interactions. Appraisals of cigarette and alcohol effects were also examined within this framework., Results: Buzz, excitement, and pleasure from alcohol and cigarettes were prominent features of real-world drinking episodes. Smoking was associated with enhanced buzz and excitement when eBAC was high and descending. Smoking slightly accentuated the relation between eBAC and ratings of drinking pleasure among women, but this relation was somewhat weakened by smoking among men., Conclusions: Smoking during drinking episodes may be partly explained by a persistence of stimulant alcohol effects beyond the blood alcohol concentration peak. Acute effects of nicotine and tobacco use on the descending limb deserve further scrutiny in experimental alcohol challenge research.