Author: James Anderson

Comorbid post-traumatic stress disorder in alcohol use disorder: relationships to demography, drinking and neuroimmune profile Full Text

There were no correlations found between sleep and recall accuracy, in contrast we found weak evidence in support of the null hypothesis in all tests conducted. More importantly, we still observed performance deficits in the after-MBO condition. Alcohol is suggested to impact sleep quality [43, 63], however, it is worth noting that measures of sleep quality are subjective, include qualitative components [see 43, 64], and by their very nature are likely to strongly correlate with sleep quantity. Future work may focus on quantitative measures of sleep quality affected by alcohol. In comparison to the free recall task, the serial recall task increased cognitive load by asking participants to immediately recall words in the order of their presentation.

The first author collected blood samples at least 4 days (mean 34.4, SD 32.7) after the last alcohol intake and conducted fully structured psychiatric interviews after 10 days in the treatment programs. Patients were undergoing treatment for a mean of 54.9 days (SD 47.2), and a great majority of them (86%) were from a rehabilitation center setup. Finally, two studies in this virtual issue focus on military personnel and veterans. The first study by Stein and colleagues (2017) reports on alcohol misuse and AUD prior to enlistment in the Army, and highlights the strong association between prior AUD and subsequent development of PTSD among newly enlisted soldiers.

Procedure and alcohol protocol

The experience can be compared to snapping photos only to discover later that there was no film in the camera. The difference with a blackout is that, not only are there no pictures in the camera, but your mind has absolutely no memory of having taken the pictures. Frequency of responses to drinking behaviour questions, and quantity of alcohol consumed over a 6-week period given as mean scores with standard deviation in brackets. A drinking session refers to a single drinking event of unspecified duration.

Up to a third of those who survive traumatic accidents, illness, or disaster report drinking problems. Alcohol problems are more common for those who experience trauma if they have ongoing health problems or pain. The Recovery Village aims to improve the quality of life for people struggling with substance use or mental health disorder with fact-based content about the nature of behavioral health conditions, treatment options and their related outcomes. We publish material that is researched, cited, edited and reviewed by licensed medical professionals.

They’re evidence of a possible genetic vulnerability to alcohol.

Women are more likely to report symptoms of alcohol use disorders than men. Further, women are more likely to experience a traumatic experience due to disproportionately being affected by domestic violence, sexual abuse, and sexual assault. Women affected by PTSD are more likely to use alcohol after the trauma experience, whereas men seem to be more likely to use other substances. Data from the Department of Veterans Affairs indicates that as many as 63 percent of veterans diagnosed with alcohol use or other substance use disorder also meet the diagnostic criteria for PTSD. While PTSD does not result solely from trauma experienced with military duty, PTSD and alcohol abuse in veterans are occurring at higher rates than in the general population. Seeking treatment for a substance use disorder and PTSD have increased at least 300 percent in recent years.

In our free recall experiment, both groups showed similar recall accuracy when sober and after drinking alcohol, where the amount of words recalled decreased at the same rate. Additionally, within the MBO group, recall after-MBO was variable across the group, with 10 participants showing a deficit in relation to sober conditions, while 12 showed no deficit. This pattern of variability may suggest a weak effect size within the overall population of individuals who blackout frequently for free recall, and mirrors findings across studies of hangovers in social drinkers. Some studies have shown no deficit in memory performance [see, for example, 52, 53], but others have found impaired performance during hangovers in free recall tasks [54, 55]. Possibly the differences between findings reflects the design of experiments, either measuring in the laboratory or relying on self-reported drinking behaviour.

(E) scatterplot displays the difference between the mean accuracy (%) for immediately recalled words in the depth of encoding task, before-alcohol minus after-MBO, correlated with reported minutes slept, within the MBO group. Two studies featured in this virtual issue analyzed extensive cross-sectional data to discern the complex effects of race and ethnicity on AUD and PTSD. Werner and colleagues (2016) utilized a large dataset of almost 4,000 women to examine comparative differences in alcohol use patterns, AUD prevalence, and the relationship between trauma and AUD among European American (EA) and African American (AA) women. EA women were found to be more likely than their AA counterparts to use alcohol and to develop AUD.

1. The abstinence duration was determined by inquiring the most recent alcohol consumption episode, and participants responded to whether or not they had ever engaged in driving under the influence of alcohol.
2. One recent review on alcohol related MBOs reported only two studies which included a test of memory [28].
3. A review of PTSD and alcohol abuse statistics indicate that nearly 28 percent of women diagnosed with PTSD report concerns about alcohol abuse and dependence.
4. With the help of ecosoberhouse.com, people will be able to leave their bad habits.
5. Those willing to participate were asked to provide a thumbprint with a witness (treatment staff or patient party)’s signature, confirming that any of the participant’s queries had been answered by the researcher and that the consent was given freely.

First, all patients presenting with AUD should be assessed for trauma exposure and PTSD diagnosis. Data from the Ralevski et al., (2016) paper demonstrate the powerful effects that trauma reminders have on craving and alcohol consumption and, therefore, treatment needs to address both the AUD and PTSD symptoms. With regard to behavioral treatments, exposure-based interventions are recommended given the greater improvement in PTSD symptoms observed, coupled with significant reductions in SUD severity experienced.

How to Help a Loved One Struggling with PTSD and Alcohol Addiction

The free recall task always came before the serial recall task, to reduce influence of any memory strategy or heuristic employed in the serial recall task being applied to the free recall task. Presentation order of the two blocks was sequentially changed between participants, and also within participants when on returning visits (MBO group). Successful treatment of combined post-traumatic stress disorder with blackout drinking requires that both problems be treated together or simultaneously. Dealing with these problems usually includes education, therapy, medication, and support groups. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), especially exposure therapy, is the most effective counseling in treating post-traumatic stress disorder. Cognitive therapy brings the traumatic event to the surface and exposes it so that its memory can disappear.

A team of professionals at The Recovery Village can assist in designing a comprehensive treatment plan to suit someone’s specific disorders. Someone with PTSD may experience mood swings or an overall depressed mood. Drinking alcohol, especially to excess, is likely to have similar effects on mood. Someone who experiences changes in mood or depressed feelings when drinking alcohol in addition to PTSD symptoms may be more likely to continue to drink excessively. Alcohol-related blackouts are gaps in memory, when you can’t recall what happened while you were intoxicated. Blackouts can happen to anyone who drinks alcohol, regardless of their age or experience with drinking.

We found again that alcohol impaired both the number of words recalled, and the length of sequences recalled, in both groups. In contrast to the free recall task, the MBO group displayed significantly reduced performance on the task after experiencing an MBO, similar to after ingesting alcohol. 73.9% of individuals exhibited consistently poor recall after experiencing an MBO, highlighting the severity of an alcohol-induced MBO on memory performance under demanding task constraints.

Relatedly, the definition of a treatment “completer” needs to be better standardized, as it is difficult to interpret and compare treatment outcomes across studies when the results are based on patients who received widely different amounts of the prescribed treatment. It is recommended that all trials report on participants who complete the entire treatment protocol. Binging, pre-partying, and alcohol games, especially on an empty stomach, all produce a rapid rise in blood alcohol levels that make blackouts more likely. In sum, we found evidence for reduced performance after-MBO compared to before-alcohol in our MBO group in two of the three tasks (serial recall and depth of encoding tasks).

Only 20 (11%) participants, including 10 Bhutanese refugees, were women. At an average of 30.0 years of age (SD 10.2), female participants were significantly younger than their male counterparts at 36.2 years of age (SD 9.9). Those unable to read or write (eight men and eight women) were read out the contents of the information sheet (Nepali language) individually by the first author.