Intoxicated eyewitnesses:the effect of a fully balanced placebo design on event memory and metacognitive control

Few studies have examined the impact of alcohol on metacognition for witnessed events. We used a 2x2 balanced placebo design, where mock-witnesses expected and drank alcohol, did not expect but drank alcohol, did not expect nor drank alcohol, or expected but did not drink alcohol. Participants watched a mock-crime in a bar-lab, followed by free recall and a cued-recall test with or without the option to reply ‘don’t know’ (DK). Intoxicated mock-witnesses’ free recall was less complete but not less accurate. During cued-recall, alcohol led to lower accuracy, and reverse placebo participants gave more erroneous and fewer correct responses. Permitting and clarifying DK responses was associated with fewer errors and more correct responses for sober individuals; and intoxicated witnesses were less likely to opt out of erroneous responding to unanswerable questions. Our findings highlight the practical and theoretical importance of examining pharmacological effects of alcohol and expectancies in real-life settings

Public self-consciousness, pre-loading and drinking harms among university students

Background: Social anxiety and self-consciousness are associated with alcohol-related problems in students. The practice of pre-loading is one avenue for exploration regarding this relationship. Individuals may pre-load to reduce social anxiety and feel more confident when socialising, which could lead to the increased harms experienced. The current study aimed to explore reasons for pre-loading, and whether public and private self-consciousness and social anxiety were related to pre-loading, increased drinking and harms. Method: Prospective study with four-week follow up of 325 UK students aged 18-30 years old. Participants completed measures of private and public self-consciousness, social anxiety, alcohol consumption, alcohol-related harms and pre-loading. Results: Financial motives and mood-related reasons, such as gaining confidence were reported as reasons for pre-loading. Pre-loading predicted hazardous alcohol consumption, but social anxiety, and public and private self-consciousness did not. However, pre-loading, public self-consciousness and social anxiety predicted alcohol-related harms. Furthermore, public self-consciousness mediated the relationship between pre-loading and harms in a positive direction and this appeared to be more relevant in high risk (AUDIT 8+) than low risk drinkers. Conclusion: Students who scored higher in public self-consciousness appeared to be at greater risk of harms from pre-loading. Further research should examine this relationship further with particular attention to high risk drinkers, and explore which aspects of a night out are related to heightened self-consciousness. Interventions could incorporate measures to reduce public self-consciousness, in order to reduce the negative impacts of pre-loading

Training primary care nurses to conduct alcohol screening and brief interventions in South Africa

Although progress has been made in developing a scientific basis for alcohol screening and brief intervention (SBI), training packages are necessary for its widespread dissemination in primary care settings in developing societies. Using a training package developed by the World Health Organisation 121 nurses from one rural site (29 clinics in Vhembe District) and one urban site (3 clinics and 6 mobile clinics in Polokwane/ Seshego) in South Africa were compared before and after SBI training regarding knowledge and attitudes, and the subsequent practice of SBI in routine clinical practice. Although the training effects were at times moderate, all changes were in a direction more conducive to implementing SBI. Health care providers significantly increased in knowledge, confidence in SBI and higher self-efficacy in implementing SBI at followup after 9 months after receiving the training. When delivered in the context of a comprehensive SBI implementation programme, this training is effective in changing providers’ knowledge, attitudes, and practice of SBI for at-risk drinking

Western Australian public opinions of a minimum pricing policy for alcohol: study protocol

Background: Excessive alcohol consumption has significant adverse economic, social, and health outcomes. Recent estimates suggest that the annual economic costs of alcohol in Australia are up to AUD $36 billion. Policies influencing price have been demonstrated to be very effective in reducing alcohol consumption and alcohol-related harms. Interest in minimum pricing has gained traction in recent years. However, there has been little research investigating the level of support for the public interest case of minimum pricing in Australia. Objective: This article describes protocol for a study exploring Western Australian (WA) public knowledge, understanding, and reaction to a proposed minimum price policy per standard drink. Methods: The study will employ a qualitative methodological design. Participants will be recruited from a wide variety of backgrounds, including ethnic minorities, blue and white collar workers, unemployed, students, and elderly/retired populations to participate in focus groups. Focus group participants will be asked about their knowledge of, and initial reactions to, the proposed policy and encouraged to discuss how such a proposal may affect their own alcohol use and alcohol consumption at the population level. Participants will also be asked to discuss potential avenues for increasing acceptability of the policy. The focus groups will adopt a semi-structured, open-ended approach guided by a question schedule. The schedule will be based on feedback from pilot samples, previous research, and a steering group comprising experts in alcohol policy and pricing. Results: The study is expected to take approximately 14 months to complete. Conclusions: The findings will be of considerable interest and relevance to government officials, policy makers, researchers, advocacy groups, alcohol retail and licensed establishments and organizations, city and town planners, police, and other stakeholder organizations

The role of violent thinking in violent behaviour; it’s more about thinking than drinking

This article aims to explore and report on violent thinking and alcohol misuse; how these factors may predict self-reported violence. The role of violent thinking in violent behavior is both well established in theoretical models, yet there are few measures that explain this role. One measure that has been identified is the Maudsley Violence Questionnaire (MVQ). This is the first study to explore the use of the MVQ with a general (nonoffender) adult sample, having already been shown to be valid with young people (under 18 years old), adult male offenders, and mentally disordered offenders. This study involved 808 adult participants—569 female and 239 male participants. As figures demonstrate that around half of all violent crime in the United Kingdom is alcohol related, we also explored the role of alcohol misuse. Regression was used to explore how these factors predicted violence. The results demonstrate the important role of violent thinking in violent behavior. The MVQ factor of “Machismo” was the primary factor in regression models for both male and female self-reported violence. The role of alcohol in the regression models differed slightly between the male and female participants, with alcohol misuse involved in male violence. The study supports theoretical models including the role of violent thinking and encourages those hoping to address violence, to consider “Machismo” as a treatment target. The study also provides further validation of the MVQ as a helpful tool for clinicians or researchers who may be interested in “measuring” violent thinking

Combining trait models of impulsivity to improve explanation of substance use behaviour

The UPPS-P model of impulsivity is gaining popularity among personality and substance use researchers, but questions remain as to whether its five facets have incremental validity in explaining substance use over a more parsimonious model specifying only two facets: reward drive and rash impulsiveness. In three cross-sectional studies (total N = 486), we investigated whether the novel components of the UPPS-P model (negative Urgency, Premeditation, Perseverance, Sensation seeking, Positive urgency) predicted typical and problematic alcohol and cannabis use after accounting for reward drive, rash impulsiveness and trait neuroticism (assessed with the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire). Reward drive and rash impulsiveness scores were calculated using principal components analysis of multiple scales, including UPPS-P premeditation and sensation seeking. Results showed that rash impulsiveness was a robust predictor of typical and problematic substance use. The novel facets of the UPPS-P did not improve prediction of typical substance use. The urgency scales inconsistently predicted problematic use. Specifically, negative urgency predicted one of three measures of negative consequences from alcohol use, and positive urgency only predicted negative consequences from cannabis use. Results suggest that the three novel facets of the UPPS-P model add little over a two component model in explaining substance use, although may provide preliminary evidence for the utility of a revised global urgency construct in explaining problematic substance use

Impulsivity in disorders of food and drug misuse.

BACKGROUND: Evidence suggests some overlap between the pathological use of food and drugs, yet how impulsivity compares across these different clinical disorders remains unclear. Substance use disorders are commonly characterized by elevated impulsivity, and impulsivity subtypes may show commonalities and differences in various conditions. We hypothesized that obese subjects with binge-eating disorder (BED) and abstinent alcohol-dependent cohorts would have relatively more impulsive profiles compared to obese subjects without BED. We also predicted decision impulsivity impairment in obesity with and without BED. METHOD: Thirty obese subjects with BED, 30 without BED and 30 abstinent alcohol-dependent subjects and age- and gender-matched controls were tested on delay discounting (preference for a smaller immediate reward over a larger delayed reward), reflection impulsivity (rapid decision making prior to evidence accumulation) and motor response inhibition (action cancellation of a prepotent response). RESULTS: All three groups had greater delay discounting relative to healthy volunteers. Both obese subjects without BED and alcohol-dependent subjects had impaired motor response inhibition. Only obese subjects without BED had impaired integration of available information to optimize outcomes over later trials with a cost condition. CONCLUSIONS: Delay discounting appears to be a common core impairment across disorders of food and drug intake. Unexpectedly, obese subjects without BED showed greater impulsivity than obese subjects with BED. We highlight the dissociability and heterogeneity of impulsivity subtypes and add to the understanding of neurocognitive profiles across disorders involving food and drugs. Our results have therapeutic implications suggesting that disorder-specific patterns of impulsivity could be targeted.V.V. is a Wellcome Trust Intermediate Fellow in Clinical Neurosciences (Wellcome Trust grant no. WT093705MA). Y.W. is supported by the Fyssen Fondation. N.A.H. is a Wellcome Trust Intermediate Fellow in Clinical Neurosciences. The BCNI is supported by both the Wellcome Trust and Medical Research Council.This is the accepted manuscript. The final version is available from CUP at http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S003329171400183

A time series analysis of presentations to Queensland health facilities for alcohol-related conditions, following the increase in ‘alcopops’ tax

Objective: In response to concerns about the health consequences of high-risk drinking by young people, the Australian Government increased the tax on pre-mixed alcoholic beverages ('alcopops') favoured by this demographic. We measured changes in admissions for alcohol-related harm to health throughout Queensland, before and after the tax increase in April 2008. Methods: We used data from the Queensland Trauma Register, Hospitals Admitted Patients Data Collection, and the Emergency Department Information System to calculate alcohol-related admission rates per 100,000 people, for 15 - 29 year-olds. We analysed data over 3 years (April 2006 - April 2009), using interrupted time-series analyses. This covered 2 years before, and 1 year after, the tax increase. We investigated both mental and behavioural consequences (via F10 codes), and intentional/unintentional injuries (S and T codes). Results: We fitted an auto-regressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model, to test for any changes following the increased tax. There was no decrease in alcohol-related admissions in 15 - 29 year-olds. We found similar results for males and females, as well as definitions of alcohol-related harms that were narrow (F10 codes only) and broad (F10, S and T codes). Conclusions: The increased tax on 'alcopops' was not associated with any reduction in hospital admissions for alcohol-related harms in Queensland 15 - 29 year-olds