Binge drinking is prevalent among college students and contributes to serious social and personal problems. A continued pattern of binge drinking poses immediate health risks (e.g., alcohol poisoning, acute alcoholic hepatitis), as well as long- term consequences (alcohol dependence, liver cirrhosis). The proposed research addresses the longstanding question of why some binge drinkers continue to binge drink, despite their attempts to restrain from excessive drinking. The proposed research examines how cognitive impairment produced by a moderate dose of alcohol can compromise a drinker's ability to stop ongoing drinking behavior and contribute to a binge. The study examines young healthy social drinkers between 21 and 30 years old. The research uses a cognitive paradigm to test the degree to which social drinkers can control and inhibit their behavior under a moderate dose of alcohol administered in the laboratory. Individual differences in the degree to which alcohol impairs this ability are examined in relation to drinker's self-reports of binge drinking, and other risk factors, such as their level of subjective reinforcement from alcohol, and their level of preoccupation with controlling drinking. The research will determine whether the propensity to binge drink is greater is greater among individuals who suffer more impairment of behavioral control from a dose of alcohol. The research also will show how alcohol impairment of self-control can represent an abuse liability factor that differs from traditional abuse liability measures that are based on self-reported levels of subjective intoxication and reinforcement. The long-term objective of this research is to determine how individual differences in alcohol impairment of cognitive functioning can represent an early-onset risk factor for later alcohol dependence by promoting a continued pattern of abusive binge drinking.
