Stability of scores and correlations with drinking behaviors over 15 years for the Self-Report of the Effects of Alcohol Questionnaire.

BACKGROUND

The low level of response (LR) to alcohol is an endophenotype that predicts future heavy drinking and alcohol use disorders (AUDs). LR can be measured by laboratory-based alcohol challenges or by the retrospective Self-Report of the Effects of Alcohol (SRE) questionnaire. This paper reports the relationships among these two measures and how each related to both recent and future drinking quantities and problems across 15 years in 235 men.

METHODS

Probands from the San Diego Prospective Study (SDPS) participated in alcohol challenges to determine their LR at age 20, and subsequently at ages 35, 40, 45 and 50 filled out an SRE regarding the number of standard drinks needed for up to four effects early in life (SRE5) and across early, recent, and heaviest drinking life epochs (SRET). Changes in SRE scores across time were evaluated with ANOVAs and Pearson correlations were used to evaluate how SRE5, SRET and earlier alcohol challenge-based LRs related to prior five-year drinking histories and future alcohol involvement.

RESULTS

While SRE scores decreased 9% over the 15 years, the relationships between SRE values with prior five-year drinking parameters and with future alcohol intake and problems remained robust, and even improved with advancing age. A similar pattern was seen for correlations between SRE and alcohol challenge-based LRs 15-30 years previously.

CONCLUSIONS

Alcohol challenge and SRE-based LRs related to each other, to alcohol use patterns, and to future alcohol problems across age 35-50 in the men studied here.