Do people who drink more alcohol develop greater alcohol tolerance over time? That says a study

The idea that people who drink more alcohol have a higher tolerance seems to be entrenched in society. It is common to think that a a non-drinker who drinks will feel dizzy more quickly than someone who is used to drinking. However, this relationship is more nuanced than it appears.

According to new research from University of Chicago in the United States Although heavy drinkers may tolerate a certain amount of alcohol better than light or moderate drinkers, it is wrong to say that heavy drinkers can “hold back alcohol”.

“It is widely believed that when experienced drinkers consume alcohol, they tolerate its harmful effects. We support it a little, but with many nuances ”, said in a press release Andrea King, PhD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience at UChicago and lead author of the study.

He study published in the journal Clinical and experimental research on alcoholism looked at three groups of young adults in their twenties with different drinking habits: light drinkers, social heavy drinkers, and people with alcohol use disorders.

The study initially supported the idea that heavy drinkers could control their alcohol consumption without its corresponding effect, since the results showed that people with alcohol use disorder (AUD, traditionally known as name of alcoholism), they performed better on fine motor and thinking tasks after 30 minutes of consuming the drink, compared to light social drinkers after drinking four to five drinks an amount of alcohol that would make someone legally intoxicated.

However, when AUD drinkers consumed a greater amount of alcohol, similar to their drinking patterns of seven or eight drinks, they showed significant impairment in these same tasks, more than double their impairment with the standard dose while intoxicated, which did not return to baseline performance until three hours after drinking.

“When they drank alcohol in our study at a dose similar to their usual drinking pattern, we observed significant impairments in fine motor and cognitive tests that were even more detrimental than those experienced by a light drinker. with the intoxicating dose,” he said. King.

The study involved 397 participants who were part of the Chicago Social Consumption Project an ongoing research study launched by King in 2004 examining the effects of common substances such as alcohol, caffeine and antihistamines on people with various drinking patterns.

The groups were divided into three, depending on the amount of alcohol consumed: light drinkers who do not binge drink, heavy social drinkers who binge drink several times a month, and drinkers who meet AUD criteria and frequently binge drink at least a third of days or more in a typical month.

Light drinkers were defined as people who drink six “standard” drinks a week but don’t binge, King explained. Social drinkers were defined as those who drank at least ten drinks a week and got drunk one to five times a month.

Finally, the third group included drinkers who met the criteria for alcohol use disorder, 28 or more drinks per week for men and 21 for women, and who frequently drank at least one drink per week. a month.

In addition, people in this group also met other AUD criteria, such as not being able to cut down on alcohol intake, drinking even when it caused problems with family and friends, and find themselves in situations where they or others could be harmed.

“In their daily life, this group drank an average of 38.7 glasses per week. compared to 2.5 glasses per week for light drinkers and around 20 glasses for heavy drinkers,” King said.

Participants were told they would receive a drink containing alcohol, a stimulant, a sedative, or a placebo. The alcoholic drink was equivalent to five to four glasses, a high dose considered sufficient to intoxicate a typical drinker, according to the study.

Participants were assessed with a cognitive performance test before drinking and at 30-minute intervals after drinking. They were also asked, at 30-minute and 180-minute intervals, how affected they felt by alcohol on a scale of “not at all” and “extremely.”

At baseline, AUDs and heavy social drinkers reported feeling less impaired than light drinkers and showed less overall alcohol impairment on motor and cognitive tests. Additionally, they returned to baseline levels more quickly, supporting the idea that they had more tolerance and could “hold through alcohol” better than people who didn’t drink as much.

But the problem is that people with AUD usually don’t give up alcohol after the fourth or fifth drink, in fact, they drink a lot. Therefore, a subset of AUD drinkers participated in a separate stage where they had one more drink, consistent with their usual drinking habits.

With this dose of alcohol in the body, equivalent to seven or eight glasses, the participants “they showed more than twice as much mental and motor impairment as after taking the standard intoxicating dose. They also never returned to their baseline performance level, even after three hours,” the statement said.

This finding suggests that the physical effects of alcohol add up the longer a person drinks, experienced or inexperienced. “I was surprised at the extent of deterioration in this group at this higher dose, because although it is 50% more than the first dose, we are seeing more than double the deterioration”, said the king.

King’s group did other research showing that heavy social drinkers and AUDs are more sensitive to the pleasurable effects of alcohol and want to drink more than their peers.

“What this study does is highlight the limits of tolerance,” said study co-author Nathan Didier, a research analyst at the University of Chicago. ”Even though he has a lot of experience with alcoholism, that doesn’t mean he’s not disabled, it’s important.”

Problematic alcohol consumption causes, according to World Health Organization, 3.3 million deaths each year. In Chile, 1 in 10 traffic accidents with fatal consequences are due to drinking and driving. Last year saw the highest number in 14 years, with around 2,270 deaths.

King says a more nuanced understanding of the effects of poisoning could begin to prevent further harm. “It’s expensive for our society for many reasons, which is why this study is so important to learn more,” he said. “Hopefully we can educate people who are experienced heavy drinkers who think they’re holding back or being tolerant and won’t have accidents or injuries from alcohol. Your experience with alcohol does not go very far, and heavy drinkers account for the majority of the burden of alcohol-related crashes and injuries in society. This can be avoided through education and treatment.