Disordered eating patterns and alcohol misuse in college students: evidence for “drunkorexia”?

IntroductionRisky drinking and disordered eating patterns, including eating disorders, are common among college students; approximately 30% of female students have reported restricting calories to “save them” for drinking. Restricting food or calories along with heavy alcohol consumption is a recipe for disaster, increasing the risk of health and behavioral consequences. Research is lacking on the motivations regarding these alcohol-related eating patterns, termed drunkorexia in recent popular media stories.MethodsThe analysis examines data from a health survey given to college students in a Psychology 1000 class at a large Midwestern university. Students completed an online survey including questions regarding calorie restriction as it related to alcohol consumption, motivations for restricting, and different ways of restricting calories. Associations between disordered eating and alcohol misuse were examined for sex and Greek status differences.ResultsFourteen percent of students reported restricting calories before alcohol consumption (25% of females and 11% of males), with 9% restricting to avoid gaining weight and nearly 4% to get drunk faster. Of those 14% who did restrict, 64% did it to avoid weight gain; 25% to get drunk faster; and 2% because of peer pressure. Of those who restricted, most (21%) were not in a fraternity or sorority, but frequently attended Greek parties; 18% were Greek members.ConclusionsA fairly significant proportion of college students display disordered eating patterns such as purposely restricting calories to be able to increase their alcohol intake. Most students restrict food intake either to avoid weight gain from alcohol intake or to increase the likelihood of faster inebriation. Although sex differences exist, this is a phenomenon seen in both male and female college students. Interestingly, women and men who are members of sororities or fraternities did not comprise the largest group of students to exhibit this disordered eating pattern. Future research needs to investigate the characteristics of those students who did not identify as members of Greek organizations but frequently attend Greek events, as they seem to be the students with the highest level of engagement in disordered eating related to high levels of alcohol intake.Public Health RelevanceUnderstanding college students\u27 alcohol-related motivations to engage in disordered eating patterns can help college administrators develop effective education, awareness, and prevention programs. Targeted interventions geared towards certain demographic characteristics (sex, Greek status) may increase effectiveness

Passion’s Slave?: Conscious and Unconscious Cognitive Processes in Alcohol and Drug Abuse

This chapter reviews the literature on cognitive processes in substance use disorders from a dual-process perspective. In dual-process models, behavior is viewed as the joint outcome of "impulsive" and "reflective" processes. Reflective processes rely on a single limited capacity mechanism and can be depleted, resulting in a stronger influence of impulsive processes. Recent studies confirmed this, both for state variables (e.g., reduced moderation of impulses after acute alcohol) and for trait variables (stronger prediction of addictive and related behaviors by impulsive processes in individuals with relatively weak executive control processes). In addiction, the balance between impulsive and reflective processes can become (further) disturbed as a result of the effects of the psychoactive substances on the cognitive processes involved. This is related to the notion of reduced "willpower," traditionally at the heart of definitions of addiction. A model on the cognitive processes involved in addiction is presented, along with implications for interventions. Keywords: Dual-process model, addiction, substance use disorder, implicit cognitive processes, executive functions, craving, expectancies, motivatio

Moderate adolescent drug use and the development of substance use self-regulation

This article presents a re-conceptualization of moderate adolescent drug use. It is argued that experimentation with alcohol and other drugs during the teenage years may play an important role in the development of regulatory competency in relation to drug consumption in adulthood. When such regulatory skills fail to emerge in young people, during the transition to adulthood, the likelihood of serious alcohol- or drug-related harm is increased. The article reviews the empirical evidence of poor self-regulation as a predictor of long-term alcohol- and drug-related problems, places self-regulation within a broader theoretical framework, and considers the policy and practice implications of this conceptualization

Changing expectancies: cognitive mechanisms and context effects

This article presents the proceedings of a symposium at the 2002 RSA Meeting in San Francisco, organized by Reinout W. Wiers and Mark D. Wood. The symposium combined two topics of recent interest in studies of alcohol expectancies: cognitive mechanisms in expectancy challenge studies, and context-related changes of expectancies. With increasing recognition of the substantial role played by alcohol expectancies in drinking, investigators have begun to develop and evaluate expectancy challenge procedures as a potentially promising new prevention strategy. The two major issues addressed in the symposium were whether expectancy challenges result in changes in expectancies that mediate intervention (outcome relations), and the influence of simulated bar environments ("bar labs," in which challenges are usually done) on expectancies. The presentations were (1) An introduction, by Jack Darkes; (2) Investigating the utility of alcohol expectancy challenge with heavy drinking college students, by Mark D. Wood; (3) Effects of an expectancy challenge on implicit and explicit expectancies and drinking, by Reinout W. Wiers; (4) Effects of graphic feedback and simulated bar assessments on alcohol expectancies and consumption, by William R. Corbin; (5) Implicit alcohol associations and context, by Barry T Jones; and (6) A discussion by Kenneth J. Sher, who pointed out that it is important not only to study changes of expectancies in the paradigm of an expectancy challenge but also to consider the role of changing expectancies in natural development and in treatments not explicitly aimed at changing expectancies

Automatic and controlled processes and the development of addictive behaviors in adolescents: A review and a model

Contains fulltext : 55544.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)This paper presents a review and a model of the development of addictive behaviors in (human) adolescents, with a focus on alcohol. The model proposes that addictive behaviors develop as the result of an imbalance between two systems: an appetitive, approach-oriented system that becomes sensitized with repeated alcohol use and a regulatory executive system that is not fully developed and that is compromised by exposure to alcohol. Self-regulation critically depends on two factors: ability and motivation to regulate the appetitive response tendency. The motivational aspect is often still weak in heavy drinking adolescents, who typically do not recognize their drinking as problematic. Motivation to regulate use often develops only years later, after the individual has encountered serious alcohol-related problems. Unfortunately, at that point behavioral change becomes harder due to several neurocognitive adaptations that result from heavy drinking. As we document, there is preliminary support for the central elements of the model (appetitive motivation vs. self-regulation), but there is a paucity of research directly addressing these mechanisms in human adolescents. Further, we emphasize that adolescent alcohol use primarily takes place in a social context, and that therefore studies should not solely focus on intra-individual factors predicting substance use and misuse but also on interpersonal social factors. Finally, we discuss implications of the model for interventions.21 p