Personalised feedback on drinking behaviours could reduce alcohol misuse

October 9th, 2009 LONDON - Excessively low cost alcohol promotes harmful underage drinking, says a new study based on survey of 9,833 teens between the ages of 15 and 16 years. Mark Bellis worked with a team from Liverpool John Moores University and Trading Standards to survey the teens' alcohol consumption patterns, drink types consumed, drinking locations, methods of access and harms encountered.

September 19th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Drinking at young age may affect genes linked to alcoholism and make youngsters vulnerable to severe problems, says a new study. The study led by Dr Arpana Agrawal, from Washington University School of Medicine in St.

September 17th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Amid an ongoing debate about changing the drinking age from 21 to 18 in the US, a Sam Houston State University economist has raised voice against a related law- the "zero tolerance" policy. Darren Grant studied data from 30,000 fatalities in nighttime accidents involving drivers under 21, and concluded that zero tolerance laws have zero effect.

September 1st, 2009 WASHINGTON - Chronic alcohol consumption can adversely affect body's biological clock's ability to synchronize daily activities to light, according to a new study on hamsters. It continues to affect the body's clock (circadian rhythm), even days after the drinking ends.

September 1st, 2009 WASHINGTON - Chronic alcohol consumption blunts the biological clocks ability to synchronise daily activities with light, even days after the drinking ends, according to a new study. The study describes the changes that drinking can produce on the bodys masterclock and how it affects behaviour.

July 19th, 2009 LONDON - If you make a New Year's resolution to exercise or eat healthily and do it daily until March 7, it is likely to stick - suggest researchers who claim that it takes 66 days for a "healthy" pledge to become an ingrained habit. Reporting in the European Journal of Social Psychology, the researchers started to investigate how long it took for the repetition of behaviour to reach the 'automacity' stage - where it is performed whenever the situation is encountered without thinking, awareness or intention.

June 11th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new research has found that introducing a child to alcohol earlier in life may increase the likelihood that he or she binge drink in college. Researcher Caitlin Abar of the Prevention Research and Methodology Center at Pennsylvania State University suggested that parents enforce a zero-tolerance policy in the home.

May 23rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - Excessive drinking and a sensation-seeking attitude among college students are the biggest reasons behind risk of alcohol-related injuries, according to a study. The study examined the "dose-response" effect of quantities and frequencies, and estimated that more than 500,000 college students suffered alcohol-related injuries in 2001.

April 8th, 2009 WASHINGTON - State laws aimed at reducing underage drinking save 732 lives a year in the U.S., according to a study examining 23 years of research on the subject. The study also found that the 'use and lose' laws- which prohibit people under the age of 21 from purchasing or possessing alcohol, and from driving with any alcohol in their system-could save 165 more lives, if adopted by all States in the country.

March 16th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Researchers may be honing in on specific genes tied to all types of addictions and finding that some of the same genes associated with alcohol dependence are also closely linked with addictions to nicotine, cocaine, opoids, heroin and other substances. Addiction experts at the Universities of Virginia (UV) and Michigan have presented new insights into the significant progress made within the last several years in understanding the genetics of addiction.

March 10th, 2009 WASHINGTON - College women may be downing a peg too many in order to hook their male counterparts but without much success, according to a new study. A survey of 3,616 college students at two universities found that the bulk of women overestimated the amount of alcohol a typical guy would like his female friends, dates or girlfriends to drink.

March 6th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Elderly people who have a peg too many might be slower on the uptake than they think, according to a new study. Although people 50 or older in the study metabolised alcohol at a rate similar to how younger people did, they performed worse on special tests after imbibing moderate amounts of alcohol and did not always realise when they were impaired.

February 4th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Guessing someone's status based on clothing and the size of their home is not too difficult, but what about more subtle clues? Psychologists Michael W. Kraus and Dacher Keltner of the University of California, Berkeley, (UC-B) wanted to see if non-verbal cues or body language indicated our socio-economic status (SES).

January 30th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Motivational interviewing with feedback (MIF) significantly reduces binge drinking among risky college drinkers, according to a new study. Scott Walters, associate professor at the University of Texas (UT) School of Public Health, Dallas, led the study on an intervention designed to reduce college binge drinking.

December 30th, 2008 WASHINGTON - Party season and binge drinking are often inseparable, and it is something influenced heavily by advertising, says a new study. A research team led by Christine Griffin, professor at the University of Bath in Britain, analysed 216 alcohol ads, both in print and broadcast.