Volume 57, Issue 4, July 2022

Short Summary: We developed a model to study alcohol drinking behaviour in an enriched and social environment. Long-term conditioning coupling with alcohol reward results in cue-induced alcohol-seeking behaviour in group-housed female C57BL/6J mice. Moreover, a high number of nosepokes on the last day of alcohol drinking conditioning might potentiate alcohol-seeking after withdrawal response.

Short Summary: We administered high- or moderate-dose alcohol to rats at a neurodevelopmental stage analogue of human third trimester. When these animals were examined in adulthood, we observed significant damage to thalamic nucleus reuniens (reductions in neuron and non-neuronal cell number, regional volume loss) at equal magnitude between doses (uncorrelated with peak blood alcohol concentration).

Short Summary: Tests for association of rare, functional genetic variants with heavy drinking and problem drinking confirm the known effects of variants in ADH1B and ALDH2 but fail to implicate novel variants or genes. Results for three genes potentially related to autism suggest that they might exert a protective effect.

Short Summary: We applied a precise quantitative MRI water mapping sequence in a prospective study in 20 healthy, alcohol-intoxicated volunteers. No significant water content or volume change in the brain, after recent alcohol intake, was found in the whole brain, grey and white matter, occipital and frontal lobes, thalamus and pons.

Short Summary: Greater disruption in the autonomic nervous system was found in patients with alcohol use disorder, including higher overall approximate entropy (ApEn) and heart rate, compared to controls. Higher ApEn was associated with increased drinking and decreased stress response in brain regions of emotion regulation, such as the right ventromedial prefrontal cortex.

Short Summary: Non-treatment seeking alcohol use disorder participants show cerebral blood flow (CBF) deficits in the insular cortex compared with social drinkers. In addition, CBF in nodes of the salience network inversely correlates with degree of alcohol risk behaviors.

Short Summary: Findings highlight aspects of reward-related functioning in ADHD and AUD. Environmental suppressors were correlated with the ADHD-AUD dimension; proportionate substance-related reinforcement was uniquely correlated with AUD; and reward probability was uniquely associated with ADHD. Neither delay discounting nor hedonic capacity was a significant correlate of ADHD or AUD symptoms.

Short Summary: This study examined perceived social norms and alcohol use in front of children among Australian adults. Many parents are consuming alcohol in front of their children, particularly fathers. Moderate parental drinking in front of children was considered acceptable but drunkenness was not.

Short Summary: Across 30 European countries, parental control and parental support were associated with reduced adolescent drinking at the individual level, but not at the population level. It is unlikely that changes in parental control or support have contributed to the widespread cross-national declines in adolescent drinking observed in most high-income countries.

Short Summary: We saw a reduction in the absolute number of ArLD hospital discharges as well as the number of individual patients involved since the introduction of MUP. However, the pattern of clinical presentation, disease severity, readmission rates and 90-day mortality was largely unaffected post-MUP in patients with ArLD.

Short Summary: This longitudinal study followed 765 adolescents from the Netherlands for 3 years. Results indicated that throughout early adolescence, parental alcohol exposure was associated with offspring alcohol use, independently of whether peers or their best friend exposed them to alcohol or not.

Short Summary: Alcohol-related mortality and potential years of life lost in Thailand were substantial, with highest alcohol-attributable deaths from unspecified liver diseases, intentional self-harm injuries, cardiac arrhythmia and ischemic heart diseases. Our findings have considerable implications for reinforcing public health policies aiming to reduce alcohol consumption and its adverse consequences.

Short Summary: Four different analytic approaches were used to estimate the impact of a recent alcohol excise tax increase in Lithuania on all-cause mortality. While all resulted in decreases of mortality, the true effect was best estimated via a comparison between predictions derived from time-series methodology compared with actual number of deaths. The indirect analytic approaches based on alcohol-attributable fraction methodology seem to underestimate the true effect.

Short Summary: College students who experienced social threat consumed significantly less alcohol than those who were socially accepted. This effect of social threat on alcohol consumption persisted when controlling for students’ typical alcohol consumption behavior.

Short Summary: We investigated the effect of an increase in minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) on all-cause mortality in young adults (aged 18–19). MLDA had a negative effect on all-cause mortality (even when controlling for general trends using other age groups), however when confounding factors were included, these effects were attenuated.