Sober N Clean

Most studies examining the impact of alcohol-dependence (AD) treatment on quality-of-life (QOL) have looked at psychosocial treatments. This study looked at the impact of pharmacotherapy on QOL, specifically, the effects of extended-release naltrexone (XR-NTX), a once-a-month injectable formulation for the treatment of AD. Results showed significant improvements in the QOL areas of mental health, social functioning, general health, and physical functioning.

Results will be published in the February 2009 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently available at Early View.

"Alcohol dependence is a chronic and disabling disorder," said Helen M. Pettinati, professor of psychology in the department of psychiatry, and director of the division of treatment research at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. "Heavy drinking is associated with broad impairments in health-related QOL, with the largest impact typically found for mental health and social functioning."

XR-NTX (Vivitrol™) is a once-a-month injectable formulation for AD treatment; its 380 mg dose has been FDA-approved since 2006. Daily oral NTX doses are also available, typically at 50 mg or 100 mg a day.

"If naltrexone is taken orally for 30 days, this translates to a total monthly dose of 1,500 mg or 3,000 mg," explained Pettinati, who is also corresponding author for the study. "When compared to the once-a-month 380 mg injectable dose approved by the FDA and the only dose available clinically, we can see what appears to be a hefty difference in the amount of naltrexone given over a month's period to a single individual when dosed daily versus injection. However, this 'lower' injectable dose does not appear to compromise efficacy, likely due to different and more efficient pharmacokinetic properties in the injectable formulation."

"The important issue is that if you can change people's drinking patterns, then you can also change people's QOL," observed Allen Zweben, professor and associate dean for academic affairs and research in the school of social work at Columbia University. "Pharmacotherapy has never really looked at QOL vis-à-vis drinking behavior, but it would seem that the FDA is interested in learning how people's changes in drinking can have an impact on their QOL. There's an implication that QOL changes naturally, but in this study Dr. Pettinati actually looked at and measured QOL as a factor."

The researchers randomly assigned 624 AD patients (423 males, 201 females) to one of three groups during 24 weeks of treatment – XR-NTX at 380 mg (n=205), XR-NTX at 190 mg (n=210), or placebo (n=209) – in conjunction with a standardized psychosocial intervention. QOL was assessed using the Medical Outcomes Study 36-item short-form health survey, administered at baseline and then at four-week intervals during treatment.

"There were three main findings from this study," said Pettinati. "First, the AD sample showed impairments in QOL at pre-treatment compared with population norms, especially in mental-health and social functioning. Second, the XR-NTX 380 mg group showed meaningful and significant improvements compared to the placebo group in the QOL domains of mental health, social functioning, general health, and physical functioning. Third, reductions in drinking from pre-treatment levels were correlated with improvements in QOL."

"These finding reinforce the notion that treatment of alcoholism, whether it's by medication or psychotherapy, does work," said Zweben. "Medication thus becomes another option available to people. These findings also have implications for the issue of compliance, in that high compliance rates might have something to do with the fact that people improve their drinking as well as their QOL."

It is one thing to believe that treatment reduces drinking and that time abstinent from alcohol can lead to increased QOL improvements, said Pettinati. "It is another to show this connection with new pharmacotherapies as they become available to our AD patients."

"In terms of treatment options," said Zweben, "this study shows that pharmacotherapy may be very cost-effective. You don't necessarily have to have a separate intervention to deal with QOL issues – whether more intensive psychotherapy, or family therapy – you may be able to use one intervention to reduce drinking, and improve QOL. This study also has implications for using medication as an option. A lot of people don't believe medication has any basis in alcohol treatment, that 'alcohol is a chemical already so why are you prescribing more chemicals?' It is almost a bias against medications. These results help to reduce some of the stigma attached to using medication in terms of alcohol treatment."

Zweben noted, however, that these findings need to be replicated in future studies, that the patients examined were seeking treatment –differentiating them from the more general population of AD individuals – and that 35 to 37 percent of the patients did not receive all six injections.
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Source: Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research

A recent study shows that alcohol consumption, even in moderation, might shrink brain size.

The study, conducted by Carol Ann Paul at the Boston University School of Public Heath, tested 1,839 people ranging in age from 33 to 88. The participants were asked how much they drank per week and underwent an MRI procedure to measure their brain volume.

Results show a 1.5 percent difference in the total brain volume of a non-drinker to that of a heavy drinker. Heavy drinkers were defined as those who consumed 14 or more drinks a week.

Moderate drinking, which includes the amounts that have been shown to prevent heart disease, also resulted in a smaller brain volume than that of a non-drinker.

"There was a significant negative linear relationship between alcohol consumption and total cerebral brain volume," the authors of the study wrote.

"I don't think it is going to change [what I do]," said Bryant Kubik, a junior in communications. "As you get older, your brain capacity is going to shrink anyway."

Research shows that as people age, the brain sees a small amount of natural brain shrinkage, about 2 percent for every 10 years, but greater amounts of shrinkage in certain areas of the brain have been linked to diseases such as dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

Kubik said he was not surprised by the results of the study. "If you drink a case of Natty Light a day, you're probably not going to be doing too good," he said.

Kubik and Ben Fox, a senior in theater, agreed that this information was not going to have much of an effect on college life.

"In a college atmosphere they're still going to do what they do," Fox said. "They'll still party and jump in Mirror Lake on Michigan Week and I'll probably be one of them."

Seventy-one percent of OSU students drink once a week or less, according to statistics from the Student Wellness Center.

Participants in the study reported low overall alcohol consumption and that men were more likely to be moderate or heavy drinkers than women.

Despite men being more likely to drink, the association between drinking and brain shrinkage was stronger among women.

The findings are published in the October issue of Archives of Neurology.
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source: http://www.thelantern.com

The more you drink alcohol, the smaller your total brain volume gets, according to a new study by Wellesley College, Massachusetts.

The study found that even moderate alcohol consumption can lead to decline in brain volumes.

Lower brain volumes have been linked to progression of dementia and problems with thinking, learning and memory.

In the study involving 1,839 adults, the participants underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and a health examination.

"Most participants reported low alcohol consumption, and men were more likely than women to be moderate or heavy drinkers," the authors write.

"There was a significant negative linear relationship between alcohol consumption and total cerebral brain volume," they added.

The research team led by Carol Ann Paul, MS, of Wellesley College also found that although men were more likely to drink alcohol, the association between drinking and brain volume was stronger in women.

This could be due to biological factors, including women's smaller size and greater susceptibility to alcohol's effects.

"The public health effect of this study gives a clear message about the possible dangers of drinking alcohol," the authors write.

"Prospective longitudinal studies are needed to confirm these results as well as to determine whether there are any functional consequences associated with increasing alcohol consumption.

"This study suggests that, unlike the associations with cardiovascular disease, alcohol consumption does not have any protective effect on brain volume," they added.

The report appears in the October issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
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source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Using positron emission tomography (PET) to track tracer doses of methamphetamine in humans' brains, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory find that the addictive and long-lasting effects of this increasingly prevalent drug can be explained in part by its pharmacokinetics - the rate at which it enters and clears the brain, and its distribution.

This study in 19 healthy, non-drug-abusing volunteers includes a comparison with cocaine and also looked for differences by race. It will appear in the November 1, 2008, issue of Neuroimage.

"Methamphetamine is one of the most addictive and neurotoxic drugs of abuse," said Brookhaven chemist Joanna Fowler, lead author on the study. "It produces large increases in dopamine, a brain chemical associated with feelings of pleasure and reward - both by increasing dopamine's release from nerve cells and by blocking its reuptake."

Studies by Fowler and others have shown that drugs that produce greater elevations in brain dopamine tend to be more addictive. But other factors, including the speed with which a drug enters and clears the brain and its distribution within the brain, can also be important in determining its addictive and toxic potential.

In undertaking this first study of methamphetamine pharmacokinetics, the researchers also wanted to know if there were differences between Caucasians and African Americans. "Reports that the rate of methamphetamine abuse among African Americans is lower than for Caucasians led us to question whether biological or pharmacokinetic differences might explain this difference," Fowler said.

The scientists measured brain uptake, distribution, and clearance of methamphetamine by injecting 19 normal healthy men (9 Caucasian, 10 African American) with a radioactively tagged form of the drug in "trace" doses too small to have any psychoactive effects. They used PET scanning cameras to monitor the concentration and distribution of the tagged methamphetamine in the subjects' brains. On the same day, the same subjects were injected with trace doses of cocaine and scanned for comparison. The scientists also used PET to measure the number of dopamine reuptake proteins, known as dopamine transporters, available in each research subject's brain.

Like cocaine, methamphetamine entered the brain quickly, a finding consistent with both drugs' highly reinforcing effects. Methamphetamine, however, lingered in the brain significantly longer than cocaine, which cleared quickly. In fact, some brain regions, particularly white matter, still showed signs of tracer methamphetamine at the end of the 90-minute scanning session, by which time all cocaine had been cleared. The distribution of methamphetamine in the brain was remarkably different from that of cocaine. Whereas cocaine was concentrated only in the 'reward' center and cleared rapidly, methamphetamine was concentrated all over the brain, where it remained throughout the study.

"This slow clearance of methamphetamine from such widespread brain regions may help explain why the drug has such long-lasting behavioral and neurotoxic effects," Fowler said. Methamphetamine is known to produce lasting damage not only to dopamine cells but also to other brain regions, including white matter, that are not part of the dopamine network.

Surprisingly, the researchers found significant differences in cocaine pharmacokinetics between African Americans and Caucasians, with the African Americans exhibiting higher uptake of cocaine, a later rise to peak levels, and slower clearance. In contrast, the scientists found no differences in methamphetamine pharmacokinetics between these groups.

"This suggests that variables other than pharmacokinetics and bioavailability account for the lower prevalence of methamphetamine abuse in African Americans," Fowler said. "The differences observed for cocaine pharmacokinetics are surprising considering there are no differences in cocaine abuse prevalence between these two ethnic groups." These differences may merit further study, and also suggest the need to match subjects by ethnic group in future studies to avoid interference from this potentially confounding variable.

Another interesting finding was that across all research subjects, the level of dopamine transporters was directly related to the level of methamphetamine taken up by the brain. This finding suggests that transporter proteins somehow play a role in regulating the brain's uptake of this drug.

This research was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Intramural Program, and by the Office of Biological and Environmental Research within DOE's Office of Science. Brain-imaging studies such as PET are a direct outgrowth of DOE's long-standing investment in basic research in chemistry, physics, and nuclear medicine. The ongoing neuroimaging research at Brookhaven is a prime example of how DOE's national laboratories bring together the expertise of chemists, physicists, and medical scientists to address questions of profound significance for society.
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http://www.bnl.gov/

It may be possible to prevent a drug addiction relapse by disrupting the brain's attempts to retrieve drug-associated memories, according to new research.

U.K. researchers reduced drug-seeking behaviors in rats by blocking their brain's NMDA-type glutamate receptor, which is vital for learning and memory, during the recall of drug-associated memories. Researchers have known that recalling memories linked to previous drug use, such as environmental cues, can cause recovering drug addicts to relapse.

The findings are published in the Aug. 13 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience.

In the study, researchers at the University of Cambridge trained rats to associate a light going on with receiving a dose of cocaine. They "reactivated" the memory by exposing the rats to the light without the cocaine infusion. Later, the rats continued to perform behaviors that turned on the light or learned to perform new behaviors to try to get more cocaine.

The rats' cocaine-seeking behaviors were reduced after the researchers gave the animals a chemical that interfered with the NMDA-type glutamate receptor. When the single treatment was given just prior to the reactivation session, it reduced or even stopped drug-seeking behavior for up to a month; however, when given after or without the reactivation session, it had no effect on subsequent drug-seeking behaviors.

The findings suggest combining existing therapy with properly timed use of NMDA receptor inhibitors may help addicts kick their habits. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration already has approved several NMDA receptor inhibitors, including the cough suppressant dextramethorphan and the Alzheimer's disease drug memantine.

More information:

The Center for Substance Abuse Treatment has more about dealing with addiction at: http://csat.samhsa.gov/NACOA/family.aspx
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source: Copyright 2008 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

An experimental drug blocks euphoric feelings prompted by drinking and could potentially prevent alcoholics from relapsing, after being tested on mice.

The next step will be to test the drug, CP 154,526, to see if it is safe for humans. If it clears that hurdle, researchers will start human trials to determine if the drug can prevent alcoholic relapse.

"We showed we could block behaviour in mice that resembles this increased euphoria even after the animals had been given a lot of alcohol," said Tamara Phillips, professor and vice chair of the behavioural neuroscience department at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU).

Earlier research has shown that some people's brains become sensitised as a result of chronic exposure to alcohol. This change in the brain does not subside after people quit drinking. So when they begin consuming alcohol again, "they get a bigger jolt," Phillips said.

Alcohol consumption causes the body to release a substance known as "corticotrophin-releasing factor" or CRF. It activates receptors in the brain.

Phillips and her team determined that a brain receptor called CRF1 appears to be involved in this heightened pleasure sensation. They compared the responses of normal mice and mice bred without the CRF1 receptor to chronic doses of alcohol. Mice without the CRF1 receptor did not experience the euphoric jolt the normal mice demonstrated.

The research team also took normal mice with the CRF1 receptor and exposed them to chronic doses of alcohol. Before testing for the euphoric response, the researchers gave the mice an experimental drug called CP 154,526 - developed by Pfizer - which prevents CRF from reaching the brain receptor. This group of mice also did not experience the heightened reaction.

The results may be particularly applicable to stress-induced relapse. That's because the CRF1 receptor also triggers the body's response to stress.

This could have implications for PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) patients. "I think if you block this receptor, you might be able to decrease drinking in response to PTSD," Phillips said.

Phillips' study recently was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences.
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source: New Kerala, http://www.newkerala.com

You might not just realize this while downing a mug of chilled beer on a summer afternoon, but a new study has revealed that too much alcohol can cause permanent damage to brain.

The study has shown that too much alcohol can also cause brain injury and degeneration by inhibiting insulin and insulin-like growth factor (IGF)

With the help of postmortem human brain tissue, researchers showed that chronic alcohol abuse can decrease levels of genes needed for brain cells to respond to insulin/IGF, leading to neurodegeneration similar to that caused by Type 2 diabetes mellitus.

"Insulin is one of the most important hormones in the body," said Suzanne de la Monte, professor of pathology/ neuropathology and clinical neuroscience at Rhode Island Hospital and the Warren Alpert School of Medicine at Brown University.

"It has many functions, including regulation of metabolism. Cells throughout the body depend upon insulin just to stay alive and carry out 'ordinary daily functions. The best known diseases associated with abnormalities in insulin's availability or actions are Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes," she added.

The study showed that in chronic alcoholics' brains, there was significant insulin and IGF resistance in those regions known to be highly sensitive to alcohol's toxic effects.

"Alcohol is a toxin that clearly can injure or kill brain cells," de la Monte said.

"Fortunately, alcohol has to pass through the gastrointestinal tract and liver where enzymes detoxify alcohol, and consequently reduce the levels that reach the brain.

“However, in either high concentrations, or at lower levels over a longer period of time, alcohol will dissolve some of the lipid in the cell's membrane," she added.

During the study, researchers examined brain tissue from six male chronic alcoholics with a mean age of 57.7 years, and six male "controls" without alcoholism with a mean age of 57.5 years.

Two brain regions were selected for study – the cerebellar cortex, which sends information to the muscles causing them to move and cingulate gyrus in the frontal lobe, involved with emotion formation and processing, learning, and memory. These were major targets of alcohol's neurotoxicity.

The results showed that in chronic alcoholics' brains, there was significant insulin and IGF resistance in those regions known to be highly sensitive to alcohol's toxic effects.

De la Monte added that the insulin resistance their study found was quite similar to what happens in Type 2 diabetes, which means that alcoholic brain disease may be treatable in part by use of drugs that make brain cells more responsive to insulin and IGF.
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source: Times of India

Depression will affect up to 25% of the population at some point in their lives. It also has been shown to have a strong genetic component. For example, if one of your close family members has depression, your chance of also being a sufferer is three to four times the general population risk.

Now University of Aberdeen researchers have joined forces with the University of Liverpool and the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London to try to find the genetic causes of depression.

They believe the answers could lie with short DNA sequences which act as 'genetic switches' controlling key genes in an area of the brain that influences mood.

These switches ensure that certain genes are only used in the correct parts of the brain at the proper times and in the right dose. Any changes in these can cause imbalances in the amount of critical proteins in the brain that may increase susceptibility to depression.

Unlike genes, little is know of these switches, technically known as enhancers, because up until now they have been very hard to find.

Recently, however, it was found that these switches were so important in evolution that they have been kept, nearly unchanged, through hundreds of millions of years from a time before the dinosaurs.

Dr Alasdair MacKenzie, Senior Lecturer at the University of Aberdeen, and the scientist leading the study, explained: "Only by comparing the genomes of species as diverse as mice, marsupials and birds has it been possible to identify these switches as, in many cases, they are located far away from the genes they control. The distances involved are as surprising as having a light bulb in London with the switch for controlling it in Liverpool."

Comparing the genomes of different species has helped them to identify the switches responsible for controlling genes known to be involved in depression, as well as addiction, obesity and inflammatory pain.

This new study funded by the Medical Research Council will allow them to build on their earlier work and also analyse common sequence differences found in the general population which can result in increased risk of developing depression.

Researchers in Aberdeen and Liverpool will study the functional effect of these 'switch' sequences. Scientists at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's, led by Dr Gerome Breen and Professor Peter McGuffin, will look at common variations found in these sequences using DNA samples taken from thousands of patients with chronic depression.

It is hoped the three year study - which will also examine why some sufferers do not respond to anti-depressant treatments - will ultimately pave the way for new drugs to treat the condition.

Dr Alasdair MacKenzie said: "This study would have been impossible even four years ago. It is only through advances in the sequencing of the DNA of many different species that we can now use powerful computers to pick out the most important bits of the human genome that includes the switches needed to control genes.

"In addition to depression, this technology has the potential for exploring the causes of a number of other disorders including chronic pain, obesity or even cancer."

Professor Quinn at the University of Liverpool said: "This study hopes to discover how the same genes in different people are controlled in slightly different ways in the parts of the brain that control fear and mood.

"We hope to link differences in the switches that control these genes with susceptibility to distressing conditions such as depression and chronic anxiety. Also, we hope to find out how these differences may change the way that depressed patients respond to their medicines."

Dr Breen, jointly leading the Institute of Psychiatry at King's involvement, said: "We can now analyse millions of genetic variations in the human genome but it is only studies like that that will allows us to track down those that are important in disorders such as depression."

Professor McGuffin added: "We are delighted to be part of such a potentially exciting project and look forward to our collaboration further enlightening clinical research and practice."
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source: Medical News Today

People who are dependent on alcohol are also likely to smoke cigarettes. Many experts believe that it's important to counsel alcohol-dependent individuals to give up smoking as well as drinking not just to improve their health, but also to increase their chances of staying sober, reports the June 2008 issue of the Harvard Mental Health Letter.

It is a common worry that trying to quit smoking and drinking at the same time will undermine treatment for alcohol dependence. However, most studies have reported that efforts to quit smoking either have no impact on maintaining sobriety or actually increase success of alcohol treatment.

There are no smoking cessation guidelines specifically for alcohol-dependent adults. For now, the best option is to follow the federal guidelines for treating tobacco dependence, which recommend a combination of counseling and medication.

A major and still unresolved question is whether it's better to give up smoking and drinking together, or whether it's better to tackle one addiction at a time. Researchers have found that when smoking cessation support was delayed by six months, study participants were more likely to remain sober compared with those who received concurrent treatment for both addictions. But a follow-up analysis found that this may have been true only for white people in the study.

Dr. Michael Miller, editor in chief of the Harvard Mental Health Letter, notes that no single approach is best for every person struggling with both alcohol and nicotine addiction. Whether an individual quits smoking during alcohol treatment or later, it's a net health gain.

Harvard Health Publications
Harvard Medical School 10 Shattuck St., Ste. 612
Cambridge, MA 02115
United States
http://www.health.harvard.edu
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source: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com

Adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder do 22 fewer days of work per year than people who do not have the condition, a study says.

The research, which looked at 7,000 workers in 10 countries, found an average of 3.5% had ADHD.

Writing in Occupational and Environmental Medicine, the Dutch team said workplace screening should be used to pick up people with the problem.

A UK expert backed the idea, but warned they should not be stigmatised.

It's important that ADHD isn't stigmatised as many people with the condition can hold down jobs
Professor Philip Asherson, Institute of Psychiatry

People who have ADHD find it difficult to concentrate because they may be hyperactive, easily distracted, forgetful or impulsive.

It is commonly thought of as a childhood disorder, often picked up because of problems at school.

However, there are estimates that around two-thirds of those affected in childhood are still experiencing symptoms in adulthood.

More common in men

In the study, employed and self-employed workers aged 18 - 44 were screened for ADHD as part of the World Health Organisation World Mental Health Survey Initiative in Belgium, Colombia, France, Germany, Italy, Lebanon, Mexico, the Netherlands, Spain and the USA.

They were also asked about their performance at work in the last month.

Those results were extrapolated out to give annual figures.

Workers with ADHD were found to take an average of eight days off sick each year.

They also had, on average, 21 days where they did less work than they should have and 13 days where their work was of poorer quality - each of which was deemed to equate to half a day of lost performance.

ADHD was more prevalent in men and workers in developed rather than developing countries.

The study was carried out by a team who are part of a World Health Organization (WHO) research consortium at Harvard Medical School.

The team, led by Dr Ron de Graaf, said: "It might be cost-effective from the employer perspective to implement workplace screening programmes and provide treatment for workers with ADHD."

Professor Philip Asherson, an expert in adult ADHD at London's Institute of Psychiatry, said the condition did have an impact on people's timekeeping, their relationship with colleagues and the ability to focus on work.

He added: "ADHD should be included in general health screens, in the same way that people would screen for anxiety and depression. This is probably best done by GPs or occupational health departments.

"However, it's important that ADHD isn't stigmatised as many people with the condition can hold down jobs, or may be particularly good at certain tasks."
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source: BBC Health News

A research team from the University of Granada has carried out a study on the psychological process that triggers the "craving" or intense desire for tobacco, a study that could establish the bases to determine the brain mechanisms that activate this state and how to control them.

Miguel Ángel Muñoz García, from the Department of Personality, Evaluation and Psychological Treatment of the University of Granada has carried out this study, under the direction of the Professors Jaime Vila Castelar and Mª Carmen Fernández Santaella.

"Craving" is an expression used to define an uncontrollable desire for the administration or consumption of an addictive substance. It is usually used in situations of alcohol or nicotine dependence and it is considered as a pathology that affects cognitive resources, as it has an obsessive component.

The researchers of the University of Granada analysed, with the help of a device, 180 regular takers of an addictive substance (cocaine, in this case), to study the emotional mechanisms triggering the addiction for the substance. This study has helped to establish the behavioural mechanisms in cocaine addiction, and consists of the emotional control of different consumption situations.

These results have been the basis of a series of studies with smokers, in withdrawal for 8 hours, to measure the physiological and emotional variables present in withdrawal symptoms using a machine (a polygraph) to estimate the emotional mechanisms responsible for the addiction to that substance. The smokers were shown several images (48) connected with situations that produce desire (related with leisure, free time, coffee…), analysing the heart´s defensive cardiac response produced as well as the startle response. Lastly, brain modifications associated with emotional responses of frustration and impulsiveness in smokers in withdrawal were studied. This system was also used for regular smokers.

Miguel Ángel Muñoz García states that this research has studied for the first time behavioural mechanisms involved in the tobacco craving process determining the brain areas and body responses connected with the compulsive behaviour provoked by tobacco.
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source: MediLexicon

While research suggests that moderate alcohol consumption may have health benefits, heavy drinking increases blood pressure, stiffens blood vessels and causes more rigid heart muscles in men and enlarged hearts in women -- all risk factors for cardiovascular disease, a new study warns.

Men who drink more than 21 units of alcohol per week and women who drink more than 14 units of alcohol a week put themselves at serious risk for hypertensive heart disease, heart failure and stroke, the researchers found.

"These shocking findings illustrate the extreme risks that heavy drinkers are exposing themselves to -- some of which are particularly pronounced in women," lead investigator Dr. Azra Mahmud, a cardiovascular lecturer and hypertension specialist at the Trinity Centre for Health Science, St. James Hospital, Dublin, Ireland, said in a prepared statement.

"We want to make sure people aren't getting mixed messages about alcohol. The potentially fatal effects of heavy drinking may more than counteract the well-documented benefits of sensible alcohol intake," Mahmud said.

The study included 100 women and 100 men (mean age 46, all healthy) who were divided into three groups: non-drinkers, moderate drinkers (males, less than 21 units of alcohol per week; females, less than 14 units per week) and heavy drinkers (males, more than 21 units per week; females, more than 14 units per week).

The participants underwent a number of tests including ultrasound of heart to assess arterial stiffness and pulse wave velocity to measure aortic blood pressures and wave reflections in the aorta.

The results showed that heavy drinking is associated with arterial stiffening and impaired left ventricular (LV) relaxation in males, and LV structural changes, including LV enlargement (hypertrophy), in females. Of special note, women who were heavy drinkers had an enlarged heart even without high blood pressure or stiff arteries.

"The excessive consumption of alcohol causes significant arterial and ventricular stiffening and an enlarged heart; factors associated with poor cardiovascular outcomes in hypertensive populations," Mahmud said. "Trends in heavy drinking continue to rise, and it is high time to recognize the potential of an alcohol-induced epidemic of cardiovascular disease. Binge and heavy drinkers must consider their behavior and control their intake before it's too late."

The study was expected to be presented Wednesday at the American Society of Hypertension annual meeting, in New Orleans.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death worldwide. About 17.5 million people die from CVD each year, and that toll could increase to almost 20 million by 2015.
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source: Health Day