Does Drinking Reduce Stress?

by National Institute of Health

For centuries, people have used alcohol to relieve stress - that is, the interpretation of an event as signaling harm, loss, or threat. The organism usually responds to stress with a variety of behavioral, biological, and cognitive changes. Alcohol consumption can result in a stressresponse dampening (SRD) effect, which can be assessed using various measures. Numerous individual differences and situational factors help determine the extent to which a person experiences SRD after consuming alcohol. Individual differences include a family history of alcoholism, personality traits, extent of self-consciousness, cognitive functioning, and gender. Situational factors influencing alcohol's SRD effect include distractions during a stressful situation and the timing of drinking and stress. The attention-allocation model and the appraisal disruption model have been advanced to explain the influence of those situational factors.

Since antiquity, people have observed a complex relationship between alcohol consumption and stress. Not only have stressful situations induced drinking, but alcohol consumption also has long been considered a way of relieving stress. For example, more than 2,500 years ago, the Greek lyric poet Alcaeus suggested drinking as a way to cope with distress: "We must not let our spirits give way to grief ... Best of all defenses is to mix plenty of wine, and drink it." Similarly, Shakespeare referred to alcohol's stress-reducing properties in his play Julius Caesar: "Speak no more of her. Give me a bowl of wine. In this I bury all unkindness...." The concept that alcohol can "calm the nerves" is, in fact, widely held across cultures. In the United States, both social drinkers (people who consume alcohol within socially accepted limits and who experience no alcohol-related problems) and problem drinkers (people who experience alcohol-related social, medical, or legal problems) believe in alcohol's stress-reducing properties. The media and the entertainment industry also consistently portray drinking as a way to relieve stress. Researchers believe that alcohol's anticipated stress-relieving effect is a primary motivation for many people to consume alcohol, despite the often harmful consequences of drinking.

Clinicians and researchers also have noted the relationship between alcohol consumption and stress. In the 1940s, sociological investigations suggested a link between the level of stress in certain non-Western cultures and the rates of problem drinking . Around the same time, Masserman conducted experiments demonstrating that alcohol administration could reduce conflict-induced stress in cats. Subsequently, Conger's theory regarding alcohol's reinforcing properties led to the development of the tensionreduction hypothesis. The hypothesis comprises two separate propositions: 1. under most circumstances, alcohol consumption will reduce stress, and 2. in times of stress, people (or animals) will be especially motivated to drink alcohol.

This article reviews human studies investigating the first part of the tensionreduction hypothesis - namely, whether drinking reduces stress. (The second part of the hypothesis - stress induces alcohol consumption - is discussed in other articles within this journal issue.) The current article first defines and provides information on the assessment of stress.

It then summarizes various individual and situational factors that may influence susceptibility to alcohol-induced stress reduction and describes evidence supporting the role of those factors.

Definition and Assessment of Stress

Historically, the term "stress" has been used to describe both the stimuli or events (stressors) that disturb an organism and the organism's complex physiological response to such a stimulus (the stress response). Because people respond to the same stimulus in different ways, however, Lazarus and Folkman suggested that stress may best be defined as the appraisal or interpretation of an event as signaling harm, loss, or threat. This approach, which this article also adopts, recognizes that an event may be construed as stressful by one person but interpreted as harmless or positive by another person.

The perception of stress elicits a varied response that may involve a wide range of behaviors (escape or avoidance behavior); biological responses; and, in humans, subjective awareness of a distressed emotional state. Stress-related biological responses include psychophysiological reactions, such as changes in skin conductance (from sweating), muscle tension, and cardiovascular responding (changes in heart rate), as well as changes in the activation of various brain regions. Alcohol consumption can reduce the magnitude of an organism's response to stress. This reduction is called stress-response dampening (SRD).

Researchers can measure alcohol's SRD effects in various ways. Among the most common measures are scales on which respondents are asked to rate their levels of certain emotional states, such as anxiety, tension, nervousness, or apprehension. Another frequently used approach for determining alcohol's SRD effects involves monitoring physiological responses, most commonly changes in heart rate. Finally, SRD studies sometimes include behavioral measures, such as measures of activity (the time needed to escape an unpleasant stimulus) and expressive behavior (facial expressions of negative emotional states).

About the Author

NIH is the nation's medical research agency - making important medical discoveries that improve health and save lives. The National Institutes of Health (NIH), a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the primary Federal agency for conducting and supporting medical research.