I can't even count how many times I've talked about the difference between alcohol or drug users and alcoholics or addicts (see here, here, and here for some examples and keep reading). The quick summary: Many people use drugs and many abuse them at times, a small percentage meet criteria for addiction at some point in their life and an even smaller percentage is the type of addict we've been taught to think of—chronically relapsing and seemingly incapable of quitting no matter how crappy their life gets.
One of the main reasons we study drug and alcohol abuse is because of the huge health impact of this stuff—we spend billions and billions of dollars every year on health-care that is directly or indirectly related to the abuse of nicotine, alcohol, and pretty much every other drug on earth (marijuana can certainly help some conditions but heavy use of marijuana can bring its own consequences). One of the major players in these health problems is the effect of alcohol and drug use on stress in the body. Stress increases death rates in several ways including: Heart attacks, strokes, cancer, and more.
Well, a recent study in Amsterdam looked at alcohol (yes, you read that right, the Dutch care about more than weed) consumption, alcohol addiction (alcoholism) diagnosis, and effects on the body's stress system, also known as the HPA (Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal) Axis. If nothing else, the study helped confirm that an alcoholism diagnosis is not necessarily the same as an indication of heavy drinking and that excessive drinking is no bueno, regardless of whether it meets addiction criteria or not.
Alcohol drinking, alcoholism, and stress regulation
I'm not going to go into this in detail (look
here and
here for more) but just as our brains and bodies have systems for
decision making, they also have complex stress
management systems. The latter rely heavily on
hormones, including Cortisol, to keep our bodies in the right states whether those be fight, flight, or reading a book before
sleep (see figure on left for over-simplified cortisol levels throughout the day in a normal person). We're supposed to have the most cortisol right upon waking with constant reductions throughout the day until we fall asleep, and back again. Individuals with mental health disorders like
anxiety and depression have substantially different cortisol level patterns throughout the day and are less effective at regulating cortisol (in case you needed another reason why
our biology affects our states of being and behavior).
The dutch study tested cortisol levels at 7 different times throughout the day after giving their subjects a 4 hour battery of tests. They also assessed their cardiac functioning by assessing different measures related to heart beat regulation that allows for adapting across challenging situations by affecting the sympathetic nervous system (excitatory processes) and parasympathetic nervous system (inhibitory processes).
They looked at these measures as a way of assessing the relative functioning of the HPA Axes' of different groups. Specifically, they looked at:
- Non-drinkers
- Moderate drinkers (less than 3 drinks per day)
- Heavy drinkers (more than 3 drinks per day)
- Non alcoholics
- Remitted alcoholics (met criteria for alcoholism previously but not in past 12 months)
- Current alcoholics.
One of the most interesting findings, as far as I'm concerned, was that among remitted alcoholics the average amount of drinking was around 1.3 drinks per day with a lot of variability, a little higher than that of moderate drinkers (0.8 drinks per day) but lower than that of heavy drinkers (4.0 drinks per day). I see this as a little more proof that people who met criteria for alcoholism at one point don't necessarily abstain forever and don't necessarily continue to have drinking problems (per Moderation Management, spontaneous remission, or some other means of stopping their alcoholic drinking).*
