News by Subject Social & Behavior

After years of increasing rates of binge drinking, alcohol-impaired driving, and alcohol-related mortality among emerging adults ages 18 to 24, the numbers are finally starting to come down among college students in that age group, according to a study in the July issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. However, those same numbers are on the rise in young adults of the same age who are not in college.

The percentage of fatally injured drivers who tested positive for prescription opioids rose sevenfold from 1 percent in 1995 to over 7 percent in 2015, according to a new study at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.

A treatment program for adolescents with substance-use disorder that incorporates the practices and philosophy of 12-step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous produced even better results than the current state-of-the art treatment approach in a nine-month, randomized trial.

Drinking alcohol improves memory for information learned before the drinking episode began, new research suggests.

Vodka tastes different from brandy, and connoisseurs can distinguish among different brands of whiskeys. The flavors of spirits result from a complex bouquet of volatile compounds. New colorimetric sensor arrays on disposable test-strips read by hand-held devices allow for their rapid, inexpensive, and sensitive identification by their chemical 'fingerprints'. They are based on novel sensor arrays that detect and differentiate among a diverse range of aldehydes and ketones, as reported in the journal Angewandte Chemie.

Fewer Australian teenagers are drinking alcohol but more needs to be done to curb the drinking habits of Aussie students, based on the findings of the latest study by Adelaide researchers.

Maintaining a normal weight, not smoking, and drinking alcohol at moderate levels are factors that add healthy years to life.

A University of Guelph-Humber funded study investigating mental health perceptions and practices of an aboriginal community in northern Ontario, and its significantly lower rates of mental health services utilization and suicide, suggests that a strong ethno-cultural identity and connection to the land are significant factors to positive mental health outcomes in this region. The study findings are published in the August 2017 edition of the International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction.

In a recent study, combining moderate alcohol consumption (within legal limits for driving) and moderate sleep restriction led to greater drowsiness and increased deficits in attention, compared with either sleep restriction or alcohol intake alone.