The Brief Addiction Science Information Source (BASIS)

The DRAM, Vol. 9(8) – Group think and group drink: Alcohol consumption plans among patrons leaving a bar

For many, drinking at a bar alone is different from drinking at a bar with one other person, and both are different from drinking at a bar in a group. In particular, a person or group’s plans for what to do after leaving the bar might depend, in part, on the size of the group. For example, “pub crawls”, visits to sequences of pubs with drinks at each one, tend to be large group events. Today’s DRAM reviews a study that examines the effects of group size, as well as individual factors, on drinkers’ plans for post-bar drinking (Reed, Clapp,... Read more →

The WAGER, Vol. 18(8) - The Predictive Power of Personality: How the “Big Five” are related to pathological gambling treatment outcomes

Numerous studies have looked at how different personality traits relate to aspects of addictive behaviors, such as coping styles, patterns of use, and triggers for use (McCormick, Dowd, Quirk, and Zegarram 1998). This week’s WAGER describes a study that examined how the “Big Five” personality characteristics (i.e., Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism) are related to treatment outcomes among treatment-seeking pathological gamblers (Ramos-Grille, Goma-i-Freixanet, Aragay, Valero, &Valles, 2013). Methods Participants included 73 consecutive adult slot-machine pathological gamblers during the period of January 2007-October 2010 entering into outpatient treatment in Spain. Researchers used a semi-structured interview to diagnose pathological gambling using... Read more →

STASH, Vol. 9(8) – Performance enhancing drugs in academia: Explaining college students’ illicit use of prescription stimulants

During the last decade, the number of emergency room visits for college students abusing prescription stimulants has more than tripled (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2013). To understand what might be driving this increase in Illicit Use of Prescription Stimulants (IUPS), researchers have used the Theory of Triadic Influence (i.e., TTI; Bavarian, Flay, Ketcham, & Smit, 2013b). As Figure 1 shows, three areas of influence (i.e., intrapersonal, social, and environmental factors) might promote the abuse of prescription stimulants through four stages of association (i.e., ultimate underlying causes, distal predisposing influences, proximal immediate predictors, and immediate precursors). Today’s STASH... Read more →

ASHES, Vol. 9(7) – Scared about death? Have a smoke: The effects of mortality reminders on smoking behaviors

If you pick up a pack of smokes in one of several countries, and you might see a warning label reading “Smoking Kills” on your cigarette packaging. As warnings against smoking become more intense and graphic, smokers are increasingly exposed to the possible consequences of their smoking, especially death (see ASHES, Vol. 7(6), and Addiction & the Humanities, Vol 6(10)). The effectiveness of these death messages is disputed, however (Greenberg, Pyszczynski & Solomon, 1986). Today’s ASHES reviews a study of mortality reminders and smoking behaviors to see whether and how these reminders influence behavioral changes (Arndt, Vail, Cox, Goldenberg, Piasecki... Read more →

The DRAM, Vol. 9(7) - No smoking – no drinking? Anti-smoking legislation and its relation to alcohol use disorder transitions

Many studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of anti-smoking legislation on reducing smoking (e.g., see ASHES 9(5)). Given the high comorbidity of alcohol abuse and smoking, it is possible that smoke-free policies, such as smoke-free public places, also reduce alcohol use. This week’s DRAM reviews a study that investigated if smoking prohibition in bars and restaurants impacts incidence and remission of alcohol use disorder (Young-Wolffa, Hylandb, Desaia, Sindelara, Pilvera, &. McKeea, 2013). Methods Researchers used data from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC, 2006), a longitudinal, nationally representative study. The study included data from 2 waves: 2001-2002... Read more →