Drinking restraint and alcohol-related outcomes: exploring the contributions of beverage instructions, beverage content and self-monitoring.

OBJECTIVE: We examined the role of drinking restraint (temptation and restriction), beverage instructions and content and self- monitoring in alcohol-related outcomes (consumption, subjective intoxication and blood alcohol concentration [BAC]) in a sample of moderate-to heavy-drinking young men. METHOD: Male social drinkers (N = 132) participated in an individualized taste-rating task (TRT), an unobtrusive method for determining ad libitum alcohol consumption. Beverages were presented using the format of the balanced placebo design (BPD), in which subjects' expectation of an alcoholic versus a non- alcoholic beer was crossed with their receipt of an alcoholic versus a nonalcoholic beer. During a single 30-minute drinking occasion, each subject sampled two beers and rated their taste characteristics on a computer. RESULTS: Consumption during the TRT, ratings of subjective intoxication and postdrinking BAC, served as criterion variables in regressions in which BPD beverage condition, the two aspects of drinking restraint, self-monitoring, and their interactions, served as the predictors. The results indicated that TRT consumption was mainly a function of the temptation to drink (an aspect of restraint). As expected, assignment to the conditions of the BPD predicted subjective intoxication and BAC. Self-monitoring did not have an impact on any of the alcohol- related outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: The results for TRT consumption suggest that drinking restraint, particularly the temptation to drink (i.e., view the regulation of intake as difficult and/or drink to repair negative affective states), enhances the consumption of social drinkers during a single drinking occasion. Consistent with previous research, the conditions of the BPD predicted some alcohol-related outcomes.