Does Drinking Reduce Stress?

Alcohol's Effects on Stress Responding, Part 3
by National Institute of Health

(Page 4 of 4)

The appraisal-disruption model postulates that when intoxication precedes exposure to a stressor, impaired appraisal may reduce stress by protecting the drinker from fully experiencing a stressor. If the stressor has already been appraised sufficiently to cause stress, however, subsequent drinking may no longer reduce that stress. This hypothesis can be illustrated by the following example. Imagine a person who has been invited to a dance but who is not a good dancer and feels highly uncomfortable when having to participate in such an event. If that person consumes alcohol before attending the dance, his or her processing of the stressful information (a dance partner laughing at him or her) may be reduced. As a result, the person may experience less stress at the dance. If that person consumes alcohol only after arriving at the dance, however, he or she will already have processed the stressful information sufficiently to induce a stress response. Accordingly, subsequent alcohol consumption may not reduce the stress response (unless, of course, the drinker is sufficiently distracted by his or her friends and other events at the dance to "forget" his or her own discomfort, as posited by the attention-allocation model).

A review of more than 30 studies conducted in numerous laboratories provides support for the appraisal-disruption model. Among the studies, those in which researchers provided their subjects with alcohol before informing them of an upcoming stressor consistently found that alcohol reduced the participants' stress. In contrast, alcohol's effects on stress were extremely variable (alcohol increased, decreased, or had no effect on stress) in studies in which the investigators informed participants about the stressor before providing alcohol.

The appraisal-disruption model accommodates many of the apparently contradictory findings reported in past investigations. Specifically, the model offers an explanation for why only some experiments detect an SRD effect of alcohol. Nevertheless, several features of the model require further examination. For example, with few exceptions, studies have not included measures of both the stress response and of cognitive disruption. Consequently, measures of the precise mechanisms posited to underlie alcohol's disruption of appraisal (measures of how alcohol affects the activation of stressful memories by a current stressor) should be included in future studies. Furthermore, the appraisal-disruption model does not settle the question of which types of information are most sensitive to alcohol's effects. For example, researchers still need to investigate whether alcohol selectively disrupts the processing of stressful information.

Conclusions

Studies of the relationship between alcohol and stress suggest that drinking can reduce stress in certain people and under certain circumstances. Studies conducted over the past two decades have identified several factors that render certain people particularly susceptible to alcohol's SRD effects. For example, a family history of alcoholism may increase a person's likelihood of experiencing those effects. However, some of those studies require further replication and clarification of the mechanisms underlying this enhanced susceptibility. In addition to FHP individuals, alcohol may be effective in reducing stress in people who have difficulty controlling their behavior, are highly self-conscious, or have difficulty organizing new information while sober. Future studies are needed to confirm those relationships.

As researchers identify additional individual factors that influence a person's SRD response, models will need to be developed that integrate the different variables. For example, Peterson and colleagues found that participants' scores on some of their neuropsychological tests were associated not only with the SRD response but also with a family history of alcoholism. These observations suggest that a link may exist between family history, cognitive performance, and the susceptibility to alcohol's SRD effects.

Scientists also have identified situational variables that modify alcohol's SRD effects. For example, alcohol has been shown to reduce stress reliably when drinking occurs in the presence of pleasant distractions. Furthermore, laboratory studies suggest that drinking before experiencing a stressor attenuates stress, whereas drinking after experiencing a stressor may have no effect or may even exacerbate stress. These findings, however, require replication in more natural settings outside the laboratory.

Research also is needed to improve understanding of the mechanisms underlying alcohol-induced exacerbation of stress. For example, scientists must examine the effects of drinking on coping processes during stressful situations. Moreover, studies should investigate whether certain types of information are more resistant than other types to alcoholrelated impairment. For example, drinking may differentially affect the processing of positive and negative information, with negative information becoming less accessible than positive information during intoxication. Research testing the responses of people exposed to both stressful and positive information should help scientists to better understand the mechanisms underlying alcohol's ability to reduce stress.

Although the evidence for a direct stress-reducing effect of alcohol remains somewhat controversial, researchers have proposed several mechanisms that could underlie alcohol's SRD effects. These explanations emphasize alcohol's effect on both the peripheral and central nervous systems.4 One study using numerous cardiovascular measures found a response pattern suggesting that the SRD response may be restricted to those cardiovascular functions that are regulated by a certain subset of peripheral nerves (beta-adrenergic nerves). Other studies, however, have not confirmed those findings. Furthermore, data from a variety of sources have led to the alternative hypothesis that alcohol's SRD effects result from alcohol-induced changes in central nervous system activity. To date, the precise pharmacological mechanisms underlying alcohol's SRD effects remain unclear.

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.