Department of Psychology, Faculty of Human Science, Medical School Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.
ICPP Institute for Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Medical School Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.
BMC Psychol. 2022 Oct 15;10(1):233. doi: 10.1186/s40359-022-00942-1.
Excessive alcohol consumption and alcohol use disorders (AUD) are among the leading preventable causes of premature morbidity and mortality and are considered a major public health concern. In order to reduce the individual and societal burden of excessive alcohol use, it is crucial to identify high-risk individuals at earlier stages and to provide effective interventions to prevent further progression. Stressful experiences are important risk factors for excessive alcohol consumption and AUDs. However, the underlying biological and psychological mechanisms are still poorly understood.
The project "Underlying mechanisms in the relationship between stress and alcohol consumption in regular and risky drinkers (MESA)" is a randomized controlled study that started in December 2018 and is conducted in a laboratory setting, which aims to identify moderators and mediators of the relationship between acute stress and alcohol consumption among regular and risky drinkers. Regular and risky drinkers are randomly assigned to a stress induction or a control condition. Several processes that may mediate (emotional distress, endocrine and autonomic stress reactivity, impulsivity, inhibitory control, motivational sensitization) or moderate (trait impulsivity, childhood maltreatment, basal HPA-axis activity) the relation between stress and alcohol consumption are investigated. As primary dependent variable, the motivation to consume alcohol following psychosocial stress is measured.
The results of this study could help to provide valuable targets for future research on tailored interventions to prevent stress-related alcohol consumption.
过度饮酒和酒精使用障碍（AUD）是导致过早发病和死亡的主要可预防原因之一，被认为是一个主要的公共卫生关注点。为了降低过度饮酒对个人和社会的负担，早期识别高风险个体并提供有效的干预措施以防止进一步发展至关重要。应激体验是导致过度饮酒和 AUD 的重要危险因素。然而，其潜在的生物学和心理学机制仍知之甚少。
项目“应激与规律和风险饮酒者饮酒行为之间关系的潜在机制（MESA）”是一项于 2018 年 12 月开始的随机对照研究，在实验室环境中进行，旨在确定规律和风险饮酒者急性应激与饮酒行为之间关系的调节因素和中介因素。规律和风险饮酒者被随机分配到应激诱导或对照条件下。研究考察了可能调节（情绪困扰、内分泌和自主应激反应、冲动性、抑制控制、动机敏化）或适度调节（特质冲动性、儿童期虐待、基础 HPA 轴活性）应激与饮酒行为之间关系的几个过程。主要的因变量是测量个体在经历心理社会应激后对饮酒的动机。
本研究的结果可能有助于为未来针对预防应激相关饮酒的个体化干预措施的研究提供有价值的目标。
