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Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2022 May 26. Epub 2022 May 26.

Department of Craniofacial Biology, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Western Cape, Robert Sobukwe Drive, Bellville, Cape Town.

Background: Facial imaging tools have rapidly advanced in recent years and show potential to be used for Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) screening and diagnosis. This scoping review aimed to determine the current state of evidence regarding facial imaging being used as a screening tool for FASD at a community level.

Methods: This scoping review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis extension for scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines and is registered with the Open Science Framework (OSF) (osf. Read More

Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2022 May 26. Epub 2022 May 26.

Department of Psychiatry, Yale Medical School, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.

Background: Data from trials of medications for alcohol use disorder (AUD) can be used to identify predictors of drinking outcomes regardless of treatment, which can help to inform the design of future trials with heterogeneous participants. Here, we identified predictors of abstinence, no heavy drinking days, and a 2-level reduction in World Health Organization (WHO) drinking levels during treatment for AUD in the COMBINE Study.

Methods: We utilized data from the COMBINE Study, a randomized placebo-controlled trial evaluating the efficacy of naltrexone and acamprosate, both alone and in combination, for AUD (n=1168). Read More

Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2022 May 25. Epub 2022 May 25.

Recovery Research Institute, Center for Addiction Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

Background: Early recovery from alcohol use disorder (AUD) is commonly associated with high levels of negative affect, stress, and emotional vulnerability, which confer significant relapse risk. Emotion differentiation-the ability to distinguish between discrete emotions-has been shown to predict relapse after treatment for a drug use disorder, but this relationship has not been explored in individuals recovering from AUD.

Methods: The current study used thrice daily random and up to thrice daily self-initiated ecological momentary assessment surveys (N = 42, observations = 915) to examine whether 1) moments of high affective arousal are characterized by momentary differences in emotion differentiation among individuals in the first year of a current AUD recovery attempt, and 2) individuals' average emotion differentiation would predict subsequent alcohol use measured by the timeline follow-back over a 3-month follow-up period. Read More

Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2022 May;46(5):699

Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2022 May 17. Epub 2022 May 17.

Center for Alcohol Research in Epigenetics, Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1601 W Taylor Street, Chicago, IL, 60612, USA.

Background: Increased circulating levels of the steroid hormone 17β-estradiol (E2) are associated with higher levels of binge drinking in women. In female mice, estrogen receptors in the ventral tegmental area, a dopaminergic region of the brain involved in the motivation to consume ethanol, regulate binge-like ethanol intake. We recently developed a brain-penetrant selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD), YL3-122, that could be used to test the behavioral role of brain estrogen receptors and hypothesized that treating female mice with this compound could reduce binge-like ethanol drinking. Read More

Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2022 May 17. Epub 2022 May 17.

Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital, University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Background: There is growing research demonstrating the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) on brain development in school-aged children. Less is known, however, on how PAE impacts the brain early in life. We investigated the effects of PAE and child sex on subcortical gray matter volume, cortical surface area (CSA), cortical volume (CV), and cortical thickness (CT) in children aged 2-3 years. Read More

Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2022 May 17;46(5):848-860. Epub 2022 May 17.

Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.

Background: Growing evidence indicates that sleep characteristics predict future substance use and related problems. However, most prior studies assessed a limited range of sleep characteristics, studied a narrow age span, and included few follow-up assessments. Here, we used six annual assessments from the National Consortium on Alcohol and Neurodevelopment in Adolescence (NCANDA) study, which spans adolescence and young adulthood with an accelerated longitudinal design, to examine whether multiple sleep characteristics in any year predict alcohol and cannabis use the following year. Read More

Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2022 May 16;46(5):836-847. Epub 2022 May 16.

Department of Computer and Information Science, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

Background: Assessing risk for excessive alcohol use is important for applications ranging from recruitment into research studies to targeted public health messaging. Social media language provides an ecologically embedded source of information for assessing individuals who may be at risk for harmful drinking.

Methods: Using data collected on 3664 respondents from the general population, we examine how accurately language used on social media classifies individuals as at-risk for alcohol problems based on Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test-Consumption score benchmarks. Read More

Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2022 May 15;46(5):797-808. Epub 2022 May 15.

School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland.

Background: The partners' role in determining the alcohol consumption behavior of pregnant women is not well studied. We measured alcohol use before and during pregnancy in pregnant women and their partners to evaluate the correlation in their levels of consumption.

Methods: We evaluated the self-reported alcohol use of 14,822 women and their partners during 21,472 singleton pregnancies delivered in Kuopio University Hospital, Finland during the period 2009-2018. Read More

Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2022 May 14;46(5):783-796. Epub 2022 May 14.

Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.

Background: There is a need for novel alcohol biosensors that are accurate, able to detect alcohol concentration close in time to consumption, and feasible and acceptable for many clinical and research applications. We evaluated the field accuracy and tolerability of novel (BACTrack Skyn) and established (Alcohol Monitoring Systems SCRAM CAM) alcohol biosensors.

Methods: The sensor and diary data were collected in a larger study of a biofeedback intervention and compared observationally in the present sub-study. Read More

Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2022 May 13. Epub 2022 May 13.

Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Background: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies of prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) commonly report reduced hippocampal volumes, which animal models suggest may result from microstructural changes that include cell loss and altered myelination. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is sensitive to microstructural changes but has not yet been used to study the hippocampus in PAE.

Methods: Thirty-six healthy controls (19 females; 8 to 24 years) and 19 participants with PAE (8 females; 8 to 23 years) underwent high-resolution (1 mm isotropic) DTI, anatomical T1-weighted imaging, and cognitive testing. Read More

Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2022 May 13. Epub 2022 May 13.

Centre for Mental Health Research, Research School of Population Health, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in disruptions across many life domains. The distress associated with the pandemic itself, and with public health efforts to manage the outbreak, could result in increased alcohol use. This study aimed to quantify changes in alcohol use during the early stages of the pandemic and factors associated with different patterns of use. Read More

Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2022 May 13. Epub 2022 May 13.

Psychology Department, San Diego State University, San Diego, California, USA.

Background: Alcohol intoxication impairs inhibitory control, resulting in disinhibited, impulsive behavior. The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) plays an essential role in a range of executive functions and is sensitive to the effects of alcohol, which contributes to the top-down cognitive dysregulation. This study used a multimodal approach to examine the acute effects of alcohol on the neural underpinnings of inhibitory control, inhibition failures, and neurobehavioral optimization as reflected in trial-to-trial dynamics of post-error adjustments. Read More

Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2022 May 9. Epub 2022 May 9.

Institute for Addiction Science, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA.

Background: This study characterized the prevalence, drinking patterns, and sociodemographic characteristics of U.S. adult subpopulations with distinct drinking trajectories during the COVID-19 pandemic's first 42 weeks. Read More

Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2022 May 1. Epub 2022 May 1.

Child Development Research Laboratory, Department of Human Biology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.

Background: The ability to identify and interpret facial emotions plays a critical role in effective social functioning, which may be impaired in individuals with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). We previously reported deficits in children with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and partial FAS (PFAS) on the "Reading the Mind in the Eyes" (RME) test, which assesses the interpretation of facial emotion. This follow-up study in adolescents was designed to determine whether this impairment persists or represents a developmental delay; to classify the RME stimuli by valence (positive, negative, or neutral) and determine whether RME deficits differ by affective valence; and to explore how components of executive function mediate these associations. Read More

Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2022 May 1. Epub 2022 May 1.

Science Research Center, Institute of Life Science and Medicine, Yamaguchi University, Ube, Japan.

Background: Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis is the inflammatory subtype of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease with a high risk of progression to liver fibrosis. We investigated metabolic steatohepatitis with advanced liver fibrosis in apolipoprotein E/low-density lipoprotein receptor double-knockout (AL) mice fed a co-diet of ethanol with a low-carbohydrate-high-protein-high-fat atherogenic diet (AD) for 16 weeks. We also examined the underlying mechanisms, especially hepatic sympathetic activation, involved in the effects. Read More

Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2022 May 1. Epub 2022 May 1.

Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

Background: While men in the United States consume more alcohol than women, rates of drinking are converging. Nevertheless, females remain underrepresented in preclinical alcohol research. Here, we examined rats' sex-related differences in patterns of ethanol (EtOH) drinking and the effects of this drinking on exploratory and anxiety-like behavior. Read More

Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2022 Apr 29. Epub 2022 Apr 29.

Center on Alcohol, Substance use, And Addictions (CASAA), University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.

Background: Progression through the stages of change is a proposed mechanism underlying the effects of treatment for alcohol use disorder (AUD). However, examining stages of change as a mechanism of treatment effects requires that the measure be invariant across patient subgroups, treatment conditions, and time. In this study, we examined measurement invariance of the University of Rhode Island Change Assessment Scale (URICA) in Project MATCH using an exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) approach. Read More

Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2022 Apr 26. Epub 2022 Apr 26.

Department of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics, Texas A&M College of Medicine, Bryan, Texas, USA.

Background: Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) has been shown to alter fetal blood flow in utero and is also associated with placental insufficiency and intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR), suggesting an underlying connection between perturbed circulation and pregnancy outcomes.

Methods: Timed-pregnant C57/BL6NHsd mice, bred in-house, were exposed by gavage on gestational day 10 (GD10) to ethanol (3 g/kg) or purified water, as a control. Pulse-wave Doppler ultrasound measurements for umbilical arteries and ascending aorta were obtained post-gavage (GD12, GD14, GD18) on 2 fetuses/litter. Read More

Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2022 Apr 25. Epub 2022 Apr 25.

Neurobiology of Adolescent Drinking in Adulthood Consortium, Center for Development and Behavioral Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, Binghamton University, Binghamton, New York, USA.

Background: Alcohol use during adolescence can alter maturational changes that occur in brain regions associated with social and emotional responding. Our previous studies have shown that adult male, but not female rats demonstrate social anxiety-like alterations and enhanced sensitivity to ethanol-induced social facilitation following adolescent intermittent ethanol exposure (AIE). These consequences of AIE may influence adult social drinking in a sex-specific manner. Read More

Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2022 Apr 22. Epub 2022 Apr 22.

Departments of Psychiatry and Radiology, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, California, USA.

Background: Diminished uptake of fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) has been observed in patients with alcohol use disorder (AUD) but little statistical contrast of the regional brain deficits has been undertaken. This study examined prefrontal cortex inter-regional Brodmann area differences to delineate patterns associated with behavioral, neurotransmitter, and general toxicity hypotheses of cerebral involvement in AUD.

Methods: We obtained data from FDG positron emission tomography (PET) and anatomical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for 87 patients with AUD and 41 age- and sex-matched healthy volunteers. Read More

Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2022 Apr 18. Epub 2022 Apr 18.

Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Center for the Study of Health and Risk Behavior, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA.

Background: Previous research indicates college students report heavier drinking on certain events (e.g., 21st birthday). Read More

Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2022 Apr;46(4):497

Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2022 Apr 15. Epub 2022 Apr 15.

University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark.

Background: This secondary analysis of the Self-Match Study explores whether personality traits affect the treatment outcome for alcohol use disorders (AUD). We designed the Self-Match Study to investigate whether clients choosing between treatment options improves treatment outcomes. The primary outcome report revealed no difference in the outcome, whether treatment allocation was based on clinician matching or self-matching. Read More

Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2022 Apr 15. Epub 2022 Apr 15.

University of Nebraska Medical Center, College of Allied Health, Omaha, Nebraska, USA.

Background: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has affected every country globally, with hundreds of millions of people infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus and over 6 million deaths to date. It is unknown how alcohol use disorder (AUD) affects the severity and mortality of COVID-19. AUD is known to increase the severity and mortality of bacterial pneumonia and the risk of developing acute respiratory distress syndrome. Read More

Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2022 Apr 15. Epub 2022 Apr 15.

Department of Medicine, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, USA.

Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2022 Apr 15. Epub 2022 Apr 15.

Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.

Background: The primary cause of Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome (WKS) is thiamine deficiency, and more than 90% of cases are reported in alcohol-dependent patients. While observational studies show parenteral thiamine administration drastically reduced WKS-related mortality, relevant treatment trials have never been conducted to determine the optimum thiamine dose.

Methods: Two double-blind, parallel groups, randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were conducted to determine the optimal thiamine dose required for (1) the prevention of Wernicke's encephalopathy (WE), the acute phase of WKS, in asymptomatic but "at-risk" alcohol misuse patients (Study 1) and (2) the treatment of WE in symptomatic alcohol misuse patients (Study 2). Read More

Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2022 Apr 14;46(4):657-666. Epub 2022 Apr 14.

Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.

Background: Accurate clinical prediction supports the effective treatment of alcohol use disorder (AUD) and other psychiatric disorders. Traditional statistical techniques have identified patient characteristics associated with treatment outcomes. However, less work has focused on systematically leveraging these associations to create optimal predictive models. Read More

Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2022 Apr 12;46(4):498-513. Epub 2022 Apr 12.

Institute for Mental Health Policy Research, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

The objective of this study is to summarize the research on the relationships between exposure to the COVID-19 pandemic or previous pandemics and changes in alcohol use. A systematic search of Medline and Embase was performed to identify cohort and cross-sectional population studies that examined changes in alcohol use during or following a pandemic compared to before a pandemic occurred. Outcomes examined included differences in the volume and frequency of alcohol consumption and the frequencies of heavy episodic drinking (HED) and alcohol-related problems during a pandemic compared to before a pandemic. Read More