For several years, studies have indicated that sensitivity to anxiety increases the risk of heavy drinking. But drinking to overcome this anxiety ‘reinforces’ expectations of the substance, which leads young adults into a ‘vicious cycle’.
“If you think alcohol will help you feel less anxious, you will drink, you will temporarily feel better, and it will make you drink more,” summarizes doctoral student in psychology Charlotte Corran, who co-wrote the study.
Young people “with a high sensitivity to anxiety drink for a wide variety of reasons, and this puts them at even greater risk”. To better understand these “reasons” and the “problems [de consommation] long-term”, Mme Corran followed nearly 200 students in their final year of CEGEP for a year.
The students completed three questionnaires, six months apart, to measure their sensitivity to anxiety (“the fear of experiencing anxiety symptoms and the belief that they will have negative consequences”), their reasons for using ( to “relax”, or because it’s “fun”), their expectations with regard to alcohol (to be “relaxed”, “sociable”, or “more courageous”) as well as the frequency of their consumption .
Not only are the reasons for drinking mutually reinforcing, but they are generally “associated with alcohol problems”.
The levers of consumption can however vary according to the occasions, qualifies the researcher, who specifies that the link between the sensitivity to anxiety and the consumption of alcohol has already been the subject of numerous studies. The originality of this new study lies in particular in the long-term analysis.
“Our research supports what we already know about the risks associated with alcohol consumption, but it adds further evidence that people drink for specific reasons,” says the researcher, for whom consuming alcohol Using alcohol to deal with certain situations is a “risky approach”.
We know that drinking alcohol […] reaches its peak in early adulthood.
An observation that seems to have materialized during the pandemic. The people who reduced their alcohol consumption would be mainly “those who drank to reinforce positive emotions or in a social way”, explains the researcher from the Concordia University’s Young Adults and Alcohol Laboratory. “Whereas those who are very anxious actually drink more. »
Better target therapy
If no individual follow-up was carried out with the participants, the results of the study “help to inform”, and will make it possible to better “target” the therapies, estimates the scientist, who was supervised by the professor of psychology Roisin O ‘Connor. This is “a good age range to intervene and prevent the development of long-term problems”.
“We know that drinking alcohol […] reaches its peak in early adulthood,” says Ms.me Quran. And during this period, “excessive consumption […] can cause a range of problems and increase the risk of long-term alcohol abuse,” the study reads.
To better understand how “these risks manifest themselves in the longer term”, the Laboratory for Research on Young Adults and Alcohol is preparing a new study, which will follow students throughout their school career.
This content is produced in collaboration with Concordia University.