www.alkoholpolitik.ch

New recommendations issued by the American College of Obstetrics & Gynecology (ACOG) call for annual alcohol screening for women, and screening in the first trimester of pregnancy.
The guidelines state that for women who are pregnant or who may become pregnant, it is important for obstetrician-gynecologists to “give compelling and clear advice to avoid alcohol use, provide assistance for achieving abstinence, or provide effective contraception to women who require help.” ACOG’s new recommendations also note that health care providers should advise women that low-level consumption of alcohol in early pregnancy is not an indication for terminating the pregnancy. … (Source: Join Together, 07/22/11)

A nationwide study confirms that binge drinking has reached epidemic proportions in China and argues that efforts to tackle the problem must address the country’s unique drinking culture.
In this study, published online today in the journal Addiction, binge drinking was defined as consuming 50g or more pure alcohol in one day for men (about five 330ml tins of beer), and 40g or more for women. The study found that of the almost 50,000 people surveyed across China, 55.6% of men and 15% of women were current drinkers, having had at least one drink in the previous twelve months. Among current drinkers, men averaged a daily intake of 47.8 grams of pure alcohol, with a median of 5.6 binges per year. Women fared a bit better, with an average daily intake of 19.1g and a median of 2.4 binges per year. 26% of male drinkers and 8% of female drinkers were classed as ‚frequent drinkers‘, drinking 5-7 days per week. …(Source: Medical News Today, 07/18/11)

Teenage girls who binge-drink have a higher risk of long-term harm to the brain compared to boys of the same age who also binge drink, researchers from the University of California, San Diego and Stanford University reported in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.
Their definition of binge-drinking is consuming at least four (for females) or five (for males) alcoholic drinks at one sitting.
The investigators said that activity levels in several regions of the brain among girls who binge drink were lower than what one would normally find among typical teenagers. …(Source: Medical News Today, 07/17/11)

To examine the proportion of self-reported alcohol consumed by different gender and age groups in Brazil over the past year, and to examine whether the “prevention paradox” applies to Brazilian data on alcohol-related problems.
A multistage cluster sample, representative of the Brazilian household population 14 years of age or older (N=3007). The response rate was 66.4%.
The top 2.5% of the drinkers by volume consume 14.9%, the top 5% consume 27.4%, and the top 10% consume 44.2% of all alcohol consumed in Brazil. Men consume 77.8% of the total alcohol, and 18 to 29 year olds consume 40.3%. Individuals below risky drinking guidelines for weekly volumetric intake account for 49-50% of all problem drinkers and 45-47% of all problem types reported. Individuals who do not binge or who binge infrequently (1-3 times/year) account for 50-51% of all problem drinkers and 45-46% of all reported problem types. Most binge drinkers are low volume drinkers. … (Source: Alcohol Reports, 07/13/11)

..from six European countries: the TEN-D by Night Project.
Only few studies with small experimental samples investigated the impact of psychoactive substances on driving performance. We conducted a multicenter international cross-sectional study to evaluate the correlation between alcohol use and driving-related skill as measured by brake reaction time (RT). …
This field study confirms previous experimental data on the negative impact of alcohol use on driving-related skill, supporting regulations and educational campaigns aimed at discouraging driving after consumption of psychoactive substances. (Source: biomedcentral.com, 07/1/11

– a follow up study of 2 399 young Norwegians.
Both early alcohol debut, behavioural and health problems are reported to enhance adolescence substance use. This prospective study investigate the influence of behavioural and health problems on adolescents‘ alcohol and drug use. …
Conduct problems in high-school more than doubles the risk for both frequent alcohol use and initiation of drug use later in adolescence. The combination of health problems and alcohol intoxication in early adolescence was closely associated with more frequent drinking later in adolescence among girls. Overall, early alcohol intoxication was closely associated with both frequent alcohol use and drug use at follow up in both genders. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 05/30/11)

Housewife or working mum – each to her own?
Aims: To investigate whether differences in gender-income equity at country level explain national differences in the links between alcohol use, and the combination of motherhood and paid labour.
Conclusion: In countries which facilitate working mothers, daily alcohol use decreases as female social roles increase; in contrast, in countries where there are fewer incentives for mothers to remain in work, the protective effect of being a working mother (with partner) on alcohol use is weaker. These data suggest that a country’s investment in measures to improve the compatibility of motherhood and paid labour may reduce women’s alcohol use. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 05/30/11) onlinelibrary.wiley.com, 2011

Background:  Alcohol abuse has detrimental effects on cerebral function, metabolism, and volume. Some of these effects were found to be at least partially reversible with continued abstinence. Furthermore, it has been reported that there are different effects of alcohol on brain volumes for women compared with men, but the results concerning the interaction between alcohol dependence and gender are inconsistent. …
Results:  Global cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) volume was increased and WM and GM volume decreased equally in male and female patients. A gender by diagnosis interaction was found neither for global nor for regional volumes or VBM data. VBM whole brain analysis yielded a significant GM volume loss in the patient group in the cingulate gyrus and the insula in both hemispheres. Region of interest analysis for the initial and 3 months follow-up scans yielded significant gains in regional volumes, particularly the cingulate gyrus and the insula in the group of abstinent patients, whereas no volume change at all is found in the patients who had relapsed.
Conclusions:  Our study confirms widespread cerebral volume loss in recently detoxified alcoholics. The effects of alcohol dependence seem to have equally adverse effects on brain morphometry in males and females. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 5/23/11) onlinelibrary.wiley.com, 5/20/11

In an attempt to find yet another way to target the young female demographic, spirits producers have sprung new lines of premixed drinks designed and marketed to associate drinking their products with weight loss. This new trend toward spirits marketed as “low-cal” even has its own industry label: The “Thin-dustry.” This move by the spirits industry marks an obvious attempt to follow in the footsteps of the Big Beer duopoly, where for the past several years MillerCoors and Anheuser Busch InBev have seen success through marketing low-cal and low-carb beer lines targeted to both men and women. (Source: Marin Institute, 5/4/11)

Researchers know that there is a strong link between parental alcohol use disorders (AUDs) and the risk for developing an AUD among their offspring. This study looked at the risk of AUDs in the offspring of a large population-based sample of Danish parents. Findings confirmed that parental AUDs were associated with an increased risk of AUDs among the offspring. … Results showed that parental AUDs were associated with an increased risk of AUDs among the offspring, independent of other significant predictors such as gender, parental social status, and parental psychiatric hospitalization with other diagnoses. … (Source: Medical News Today, 04/17/11)