‘Relaxing’ drink may prolong, not relieve, stress: study

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Stress “can reduce the pleasant effects of alcohol or increase craving for more alcohol,” according to a study.

Updated: July 23, 2011 6:39PM

Many people have a cocktail to reduce stress. But a new study from the University of Chicago indicates that stress can also reduce the intoxicating effects of alcohol, causing individuals to feel worse and prolong their stress.

When faced with stress, a person has separate physiological and emotional reactions that occur at different times after the stressful event, said the study’s author, Emma Childs, a research associate at the University of Chicago

“The increase in heart rate and blood pressure, the release of cortisol [a stress hormone], and also the increased feelings of tension and negative mood each reach a climax and dissipate at a different rate,” she said. “Therefore, drinking more alcohol might have different effects, depending on how long after the stress a person drinks.

“Everybody thinks, ‘Oh, alcohol, it helps me deal with stress,’ but in actual fact it makes stress worse.”

In the study, researchers asked 25 healthy men to complete a stressful public speaking task known to increase heart rate, blood pressure and feelings of tension, as well as one non-stressful task for comparison.

Within one minute of completing the tasks, 11 of the men were given, intravenously, the equivalent of two drinks, followed by an inactive placebo 30 minutes later. The rest of the men received the placebo first, then the alcohol.

The results showed “bi-directional relationships” between alcohol and stress, said Childs.

“Alcohol can decrease the hormone cortisol, which the body releases to respond to stress, and it can prolong the feelings of tension produced by the stress,” she said. “Stress can also change how alcohol makes a person feel: It can reduce the pleasant effects of alcohol or increase craving for more alcohol.”

The study authors added that using alcohol to help manage stress might actually make matters worse.

“Stress may also alter the way that alcohol makes us feel in a way that increases the likelihood of drinking more alcohol,” said Childs. “Stress responses are beneficial in that they help us to react to adverse events. By altering the way that our bodies deal with stress, we may be increasing the risks of developing stress-related diseases, not the least of which is alcohol addiction.”

Gannett News Service