Heavy Alcohol Users Research Articles

Alcohol-related acute atrial fibrillation. A case-control study and review of 40 patients.

Heavy alcohol use has been suspected to cause acute atrial fibrillation, but an association between these two common problems has never been demonstrated. We retrospectively reviewed 64 cases with idiopathic acute atrial fibrillation and 64 age- and sex-matched controls, randomly selected from among general medical admissions. Sixty-two percent of cases and 33% of controls had documentation as heavy users of alcohol. Furthermore, patients with alcohol-related atrial fibrillation were significantly more likely to manifest alcohol withdrawal syndrome than were other inpatients with heavy alcohol use. Patients with alcohol-related acute atrial fibrillation were not different from other patients with acute atrial fibrillation with respect to clinical evidence of congestive heart failure, electrocardiographic abnormalities, cardiomegaly, electrolyte disturbance, or response to therapy. Heavy alcohol use is an important potential etiology for acute atrial fibrillation; alcohol withdrawal may represent a particular risk for such alcohol-related atrial fibrillation.

Family structure, race, and adolescents' alcohol use: a research note.

Family structure is related to adolescents' drinking behavior differently for Blacks than Whites. Black adolescents were more likely to be heavy alcohol users when both natural parents were present, but the opposite was true for the whites. Only when non-White adolescents were in families with both parents, and the father had at least a high school education, did they drink near the rate of White adolescents. There was support of social learning theory.

Alcohol-induced spasms of cerebral blood vessels: relation to cerebrovascular accidents and sudden death.

Ethyl alcohol produced graded contractile responses in rat cerebral arterioles and venules in vivo and in isolated canine basilar and middle cerebral arteries at a concentration range (10 to 500 milligrams per deciliter) which parallels that needed for its graded effects of euphoria, mental haziness, muscular incoordination, stupor, and coma in humans. Two specific calcium antagonists, nimodipine and verapamil, prevented or reversed the alcohol-induced cerebrovasospasm and thus may prove valuable in treating the hypertension and stroke observed in heavy users of alcohol.

Self reports on alcohol use and compliance with antihypertensive medication.

Adverse effects of alcohol drinking were investigated in 240 hypertensive patients. Perceived interaction between alcohol and antihypertensive medication was reported by 9.9% of patients but the symptoms were rather mild. Except for the fact that the patients who perceived drug-alcohol interaction had higher diastolic blood pressure than the rest of the patients there was no evidence that alcohol use decreased compliance with antihypertensive treatment. Most heavy alcohol users believed that they should take their antihypertensive medication while drinking and reported doing so. Indiscriminate emphasis on avoidance of drug-alcohol combination might decrease blood pressure control of these patients.

The measurement of multiple drug use and its relationship to the patterning of alcohol intake.

The increasing prevalence of multiple drug use among adolescents presents researchers with complex conceptual and measurement issues. This work examines definitions of and indicators of multiple drug use involvement, as well as the interrelationships between indices of drug involvement incorporating different dimensions. Data regarding the relationship between patterns of alcohol use and illicit drug use in a population of 1473 teenagers interviewed in a northwestern metropolitan community indicate that : (1) regardless of the dimensions incorporated into four different indices of drug involvement examined, intercorrelations between indices were strong; (2) although the correlations between indices of drug involvement and overall levels of alcohol intake were uniformly weak, it was shown that levels of drug involvement vary directly with the maximum volume of alcohol used. Although the results of the current investigation must be viewed cautiously because of the concentration of heavy users of both alcohol and drugs in the population upon which the research is based, among adolescents, the spacing of drinking episodes and the patterning of alcohol intake may be more important determinants of polydrug involvement thant the quantity of alcohol consumed.

Seven MMPI alcohol and drug abuse scales: an empirical investigation of their interrelationships, convergent and discriminant validity, and degree of racial bias.

This study investigated the interrelationships, convergent and discriminant validity, and magnitude of racial differences on five Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) alcohol scales and two drug scales with youthful samples (mean age = 22.3 years) of heavy and moderate alcohol users, heavy and moderate drug users, and non-psychoactive-substance-using inmates at a federal correctional institution (n = 1,048). Five scales showed some degree of convergent or discriminant validity. Racial differences were observed on five scales with blacks scoring lower on all these scales except one.

Description and Prediction of the Intractable Inmate

The purpose of this study was to describe the intractable inmate and to determine the existence of factors predictive of intractability. The intractable inmate is defined as an inmate who presents a chronic disciplinary problem within the prison. To provide data on this type of inmate, fifty intractable and fifty tractable inmates at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility (SOCF) were selected by correctional and treatment officers at that institution. From the institutional files of both groups, extensive data were collected on person al, family, educational, vocational, military, criminal, confinement, prison ad justment, self-improvement program, and prison medical histories; psycho metric and personality test scores were collected for both groups. The data were analyzed to determine group differences and predictive factors. The important results revealed that, in comparison with the tractable group, the intractable inmates at SOCF were generally nonwhite, single, and not heavy users of alcohol, and they exhibited disciplinary problems before in carceration. They began their criminal history at an earlier age, more often used an alias, had a greater number of police contacts, and, once incarcerated, were confined longer. In prison, they were disobedient, created disturbances, possessed and manufactured weapons, threatened others, and destroyed prop erty. They had a higher incidence of sick calls, with tension as the primary complaint and tranquilizers as the primary prescribed medication. A number of useful predictive variables of intractability (before incarcera tion at SOCF) were statistically isolated; the primary variables were the fol lowing : Percent Adult Life Incarcerated (18 years and over; high scores associated with intractability). Extent of Alcohol Use (low use associated with intractability). MMPI Depression Scale Score (high scores associated with intrac tability). Minnesota Paper Form Board Score (low scores associated with intrac tability). Number of Police Contacts as a Juvenile (high scores associated with in tractability). Use of Alias (use associated with intractability). These six variables, properly weighted, correctly classified 78 percent of the inmates studied.

Letter: Alcohol benefit for the geriatric patient.

To the Editor.— Readers of your recent editorial on a possible alcohol benefit to geriatric patients (226:779, 1973) or of the recent abstract on a possible protective effect of alcohol on a myocardial infarction ( Circulation 48 [suppl 4]:94, 1973) may be interested in the following data from the Miami Sudden Cardiac Death Study. In a series of 118 consecutive casesof sudden cardiac death, retrospective interviews identified 40 patients as substantial or heavy alcohol users and 78 patients as drinking little or no alcoholic beverages regularly. In all 118, autopsies were performed under identical protocol by the Chief Medical Examiner for Dade County, Fla, or by deputies under his supervision. The two groups (users and nonusers) were then compared for the presence of chronic coronary artery stenosis (Table 1) and for the presence of acute heart vessel or muscle damage (Table 2). Although the numbers in each cell are not

Marijuana and the use of other drugs.

IT is well established that the use of marijuana by young people is positively correlated with at least the experimental use of other drugs1. The probability that an individual uses the strong hallucinogens such as LSD and other drugs rises sharply with increasing frequency of marijuana use2. Such associations are not, of course, sufficient to establish causal relationships between the use of one drug and another. It seems quite likely that important sociological factors contribute to the progression from marijuana to more hazardous drugs. Goode has found that frequent marijuana users tend to limit their social life to persons in the illicit drug subculture and thus frequently have the opportunity of trying other drugs2. Chronic marijuana intoxication may also contribute to the generally poor reality orientation manifested by many adolescent drug users. This, in turn, can lead to poor judgment concerning the use of the more dangerous drugs. On the other hand, it has been found that older users of marijuana, introduced to the drug about 20 years ago, contain a much higher than average proportion of heavy alcohol users, which suggests that personality and other pre-existing variables are also related to the use of multiple intoxicants3.