Memory and attention during an alcohol hangover.

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to investigate attention, memory functioning, and mood in a natural setting with real-life alcohol consumption levels. METHODS: Seventy-four participants with a mean (SD) age of 24.5 (7.0) years old participated in a naturalistic study. A between subjects design was applied comparing a hangover group with an (alcohol-free) control group. Participants in the hangover group consumed a mean (SD) of 13.8 (10.2) alcoholic drinks the night before testing. Cognitive tests included the Stroop test, Eriksen's flanker test, a divided attention test, intradimensional-extradimensional set shifting test, spatial working memory test, and free word recall test. RESULTS: The hangover group had increased reaction times compared with the control group. Selective attention (Stroop and Eriksen's Flanker test performance) was significantly impaired during alcohol hangover. However, the number of errors did not differ significantly between the groups in any task. Mood assessments revealed that the hangover group reported significantly higher levels of drowsiness and clumsiness compared with the control group. CONCLUSION: Selective attention was significantly impaired during alcohol hangover. The differences between the hangover and control group did not reach significance for other forms of attention or memory.

Next day effects of naturalistic alcohol consumption on tasks of attention.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to examine the next day effects of alcohol consumption on a range of attention tasks. METHODS: The study followed a counterbalanced repeated measure design, with participants tested the morning following normal/usual alcohol consumption and again the morning after no alcohol consumption. Participants were 48 social drinkers (15 men and 33 women), who performed attention tests at 9 am, 11 am, or 1 pm. Performance was assessed by tasks measuring sustained attention, divided attention, selective attention, and spatial attention and by the Stroop test. RESULTS: The morning after alcohol consumption, a significantly higher proportion of missed targets was observed (F(1, 40) = 6.43, p < 0.05) in the sustained attention task. In the Stroop test, participants responded significantly slower (F(1, 42) = 8.72, p < 0.005) in the interference condition (when naming the color of the ink of the words) the morning after alcohol consumption. In the selective attention task, the consumption of alcohol the night before eliminated the robust distance by compatibility interaction, which was observed the morning after no alcohol consumption (F(1, 43) = 10.41, p < 0.01). No influence of alcohol was observed in the divided attention test nor in the spatial attention task. CONCLUSION: Alcohol consumption has a negative impact on some but not all facets of attentional processing the morning after a normal nights drinking.

Direct comparison of the cognitive effects of acute alcohol with the morning after a normal night's drinking.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to compare performance measures after acute alcohol consumption (intoxication) with the performance the day after a normal night's drinking (hangover). METHODS: Eighty-four social drinkers took part in two studies that followed a counterbalanced repeated measure design. Fifteen men and 33 women were tested the morning (09:00, 11:00 or 13:00 h) following normal/usual alcohol consumption and the morning after no alcohol consumption; the order of testing was counterbalanced. In a second study, 36 participants (18 men and 18 women) were tested after receiving alcohol to attain a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08%, and after no alcohol administration, the order of testing was counterbalanced. In both studies, participants completed a task battery of memory, reaction time and attention tasks. RESULTS: Alcohol had no effect on the free recall task and the spatial attention task. Alcohol consumption, either acute or the next day, significantly affected reaction time, divided attention, selective attention and Stroop interference. The impairments during intoxication and hangover were of comparable magnitude. Performance on tasks of delayed recognition and irregular interstimulus reaction time was worse during hangover when compared with intoxication. CONCLUSION: It is evident that awareness needs to be raised that performance the morning after alcohol consumption is at the same level if not worse than when participants are at the legal limit for driving (0.08% blood alcohol concentration).

Cognitive performance and mood after a normal night of drinking: A naturalistic alcohol hangover study in a non-student sample.

AIMS: The alcohol hangover is typically investigated in student samples. However, alcohol hangovers are also reported by non-student drinkers, beyond the age and drinking behaviors of a student sample. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of a normal night of alcohol consumption on next-day cognitive performance in a non-student sample. METHODS: Participants (N = 45) were recruited from a public drinking setting and participated in a naturalistic study comprising of a hangover test day and alcohol-free control day. On each test day, mood and hangover severity were assessed and participants completed a cognitive test battery consisting of a Stroop test, Eriksen's flanker test, spatial working memory test, free recall test, choice reaction time test, and intra-extra dimensional set shifting test. RESULTS: On the hangover day, significantly impaired performance was revealed on all tests, except the intra-extra dimensional set shifting test. On the hangover day, significantly lower mood scores were observed for alertness and tranquility. CONCLUSION: The current study in a non-student sample confirms previous findings in student samples that cognitive functioning and mood are significantly impaired during alcohol hangover.

Sleep after Heavy Alcohol Consumption and Physical Activity Levels during Alcohol Hangover.

Alcohol consumption can negatively affect sleep quality. The current study examined the impact of an evening of alcohol consumption on sleep, and next day activity levels and alcohol hangover. n = 25 healthy social drinkers participated in a naturalistic study, consisting of an alcohol and alcohol-free test day. On both days, a GENEactiv watch recorded sleep and wake, and corresponding activity levels. In addition, subjective assessments of sleep duration and quality were made, and hangover severity, and the amount of consumed alcoholic beverages were assessed. Alcohol consumption was also assessed in real-time during the drinking session, using smartphone technology. The results confirmed, by using both objective and subjective assessments, that consuming a large amount of alcohol has a negative impact on sleep, including a significant reduction in objective sleep efficiency and significantly lower self-reported sleep quality. Activity levels during the hangover day were significantly reduced compared to the alcohol-free control day. Of note, next-morning retrospective alcohol consumption assessments underestimated real-time beverage recordings. In conclusion, heavy alcohol consumption impairs sleep quality, which is associated with increased next day hangover severity and reduced activity levels. The outcome of this study underlines that, in addition to retrospectively reported data, real-time objective assessments are needed to fully understand the effects of heavy drinking.

The impact of expectancy on cognitive performance during alcohol hangover.

OBJECTIVE: Knowing the purpose of a clinical study may provoke expectancies among subjects that may influence the study outcome. For example, expectancies about a drug effect may cause subjects to put in more effort to counteract these effects on performance tasks, or cause stress or other mood alterations in anticipation of expected adverse effects. The objective of this study was to investigate to what extent expectancy effects will influence the magnitude of cognitive performance decrement in the alcohol hangover state. RESULTS: Forty subjects with a mean (SD) age of 24.0 (7.4) years old participated in a naturalistic study to examine the alcohol hangover effects on cognitive performance. Subjects in the expectancy group were informed of the purpose of the study. In the control group subjects were told that the purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of time of day on cognitive performance. Subjects consumed a mean (SD) of 12.9 (10.0) alcoholic drinks the night before testing. Cognitive tests included the Stroop test, Eriksen's flanker test, a divided attention test, intra-extra dimensional set shifting test, spatial working memory test, and free word recall test. Expectancy effects did not differentially affect cognitive performance in the alcohol hangover state.

Cognitive impairments in sober alcoholics: performance on selective and divided attention tasks.

AIMS: The aim of this study was to investigate performance on neuropsychological tasks and tasks measuring different aspects of attention in a representative sample of sober alcoholics. METHODS: The study followed a between-groups design whereby sober alcoholics were compared to a matched non-alcoholic control group. The alcoholics were recruited from a six-week residential rehabilitation unit for addicts. A total of 98 alcoholics (64 males) and 30 non-alcoholic controls (22 males) participated in the study. The alcoholics were assessed on four standard neuropsychological tasks and three attention tasks from cognitive experimental literature targeted towards measuring attention. RESULTS: In comparison to a non-alcoholic control group the alcoholics were significantly impaired on all neuropsychological tasks, the divided attention task and the Stroop task. However, a normal pattern of performance for the alcoholics appears in the Eriksen task, a measure of selective attention. Alcoholics also showed elevated levels of negative affect at treatment intake. CONCLUSION: It is concluded that a representative sample of alcoholics show specific deficits of attention as opposed to a general decline of attention at treatment intake. Thus, sober alcoholics appear to be as efficient as controls at selecting on the basis of location. Nonetheless when they are required to select on the basis of semantic information, as in the Stroop task, or required to respond to two independent sources of information, as in the divided attention task, they are at a deficit. This study has added to previous research by highlighting the specific attentional processes impaired in alcoholics.

Next-day effects of alcohol and an additional stressor on memory and psychomotor performance.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the effects of a stressor, white noise, on cognitive performance of subjects in the compromised hangover state. METHOD: The study followed a mixed factorial, counterbalanced, repeated-measures design with noise, order of testing, and time of testing as between-participants factors and state during testing as a within-participants factor. Seventy-eight participants performed memory and psychomotor tasks the morning after a regular night of drinking and the morning after a night of no alcohol consumption. Forty-eight participants were tested in the no-noise condition, and the other 30 participants had an additional factor of white noise during both testing sessions. Measures of memory and psychomotor performance are reported. RESULTS: The stressor (white noise) resulted in poorer memory performance only when participants had consumed alcohol the night before testing (F = 7.45, 1/66 df, p < .01). Stress also had a detrimental effect on simple reaction time the morning after alcohol consumption in both the task with regular interstimulus interval (F = 4.61, 1/65 df, p < .05) and irregular interstimulus interval (F = 4.45, 1/65 df, p < .05). The five-choice reaction time task revealed that initial move time and return time were slowed by stress and following a night of intoxication, but these factors did not interact. Stress interacted with time of testing and state in the measure of decision time, indicating that noise has a detrimental effect during the hangover state early in the morning and a detrimental effect during the no-hangover state early in the afternoon. CONCLUSIONS: The addition of a stressor results in a significant deterioration in memory and psychomotor performance when persons are in the compromised hangover condition.

Alcohol hangover effects on measures of affect the morning after a normal night's drinking.

AIM: To investigate the effects of students' usual levels of alcohol consumption on aspects of mood and anxiety the following morning. METHODS: Students were recruited who consumed their usual quantity of any type of alcoholic beverage in their chosen company and then completed assessments of the effects the following day. The timing of drinking was restricted to the period between 22:00 and 02:00 h the night before testing as these are the most popular hours for consuming alcohol in the population under investigation. The testing included an assessment of mood and anxiety; testing was also performed after an evening of abstinence (no hangover condition), following a counterbalanced repeated measure design, with time of testing and order of testing as 'between participant' factors. Forty-eight student social drinkers (33 women, 15 men) aged between 18 and 43 years were tested, with a 1 week interval between test sessions. RESULTS: Males reported consuming on average 14.7 units and females 10.5 units the night before testing. On the morning after alcohol consumption, ratings of alertness and tranquility were lower than the ratings the morning following an evening of abstinence at both 11:00 and 13:00 h and the post intoxication physical symptoms, emotional symptoms and symptoms of fatigue persisted throughout the morning. CONCLUSION: Heavy alcohol consumption lowers mood, disrupts sleep, increases anxiety and produces physical symptoms, emotional symptoms and symptoms of fatigue throughout the next morning.

Patterns of alcohol consumption in a Northern Irish sample.

This paper examines the drinking habits of a Northern Irish sample during a six-month period in 1998. In addition the study examines the influence of contextual variables on the quantity and frequency of alcohol consumption. Questionnaires were administered to 600 participants; the response rate was 39.8% (239). An unexpected low abstinence rate was observed that, however, may be due to response bias. The results revealed high frequency (29.7% drink on four or more days a week) and high quantity of alcohol consumption (mean units per week 43.21, SD 40.33). Beer drinkers consumed the largest quantity of alcohol and also had the highest frequency of alcohol consumption. It was observed that 45.8% of all drinking events took place in a public bar and the popularity of the public bar for alcohol consumption was not influenced by age or gender. The present investigation revealed that almost half (45%) of individuals consume more than one type of beverage at one sitting, and there is a trend of consuming alcohol in more than one place during a single drinking session. These results indicate a distinctive drinking pattern within Northern Ireland and have implications for studies investigating the effects of alcohol on the social drinker.

Next day effects of a normal night's drinking on memory and psychomotor performance.

AIM: To investigate in social drinkers the effects of a 'normal' evening of drinking alcohol on cognitive performance. METHODS: Aiming for ecological validity, the study required participants to consume their usual quantity of any type of alcoholic beverage in their chosen company (hangover situation). However, the timing of drinking was restricted to the period between 22:00 and 02:00 hours on the night before testing. Testing included memory and psychomotor performance tests; testing was also performed after an evening of abstinence (no hangover situation), following a counterbalanced design using repeated measures, with time of testing (09:00, 11:00 and 13:00 hours) and order of testing (hangover/no hangover; no hangover/hangover) as 'between participant' factors in the analysis. RESULTS: Forty-eight social drinkers (33 women, 15 men) aged between 18 and 43 years were tested, with a 1-week interval between test sessions. The morning after alcohol (mean consumption: 14.7 units for men; 10.4 units for women), free recall was impaired at 09:00 hours and delayed recognition and psychomotor performance were impaired throughout the morning, despite blood alcohol levels of zero or very near zero. CONCLUSION: Memory and psychomotor performance is impaired on the morning after heavy 'social' drinking.