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Alcohol dose effects on stress response to cued threat vary by threat intensity

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Abstract

Rationale

Clarification of alcohol’s effect on stress response during threat is critical to understand motivation for alcohol use and related alcohol-use disorders. Evaluation of stress response dampening (SRD) effects of alcohol has been limited by nonsystematic use of varied experimental methods and measures.

Objectives

This experiment parametrically varied alcohol dose and shock threat intensity among social drinkers to examine their effects on startle potentiation, a physiological measure of the affective component of the stress response.

Methods

Ninety-six participants were assigned to one of four beverage groups: placebo and target blood alcohol concentration (BAC) groups of 0.04%, 0.075%, and 0.11%. Participants viewed colored cues presented in shock and no-shock blocks. Distinct colored cues predicted imminent low, moderate, or high intensity electric shock administration. Startle potentiation during shock threat relative to no-shock cues indexed affective response.

Results

High threat increased startle potentiation relative to moderate/low intensity threat. Startle potentiation decreased as BAC increased. Threat intensity moderated this BAC effect with the strongest BAC effect observed during high threat. Analysis of individual difference moderators revealed reduced effect of BAC among heavier, more problematic drinkers.

Conclusions

Clear alcohol SRD effects were observed. These SRD effects were greatest at higher BACs and during more potent threat. Failure to account for these factors may partially explain inconsistent findings in past laboratory SRD research. Furthermore, they suggest greater reinforcement from alcohol at higher doses and among individuals with greater stress. Moderation of SRD effects by alcohol consumption and problems point to possible important risk factors.

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Notes

  1. Prior research in our laboratory has attempted similar control via defining beverage groups based on actual observed rather than target BACs (Donohue et al. 2007). However, that strategy does not fully account for variation in BACs within each beverage group. Use of quantitative BAC in general linear model analyses is superior for this reason. Regardless, results from analysis of categorical beverage group (significant beverage group and beverage group × threat intensity effects) are comparable to results reported below for quantitative Mean BAC.

  2. Between-subject regressors were modeled additively because significant interactions involving mean BAC and baseline startle response were not observed in preliminary models. No significant additive or interactive effects of sex were observed in preliminary models. Therefore, sex was removed from the final reported GLM. BAC was linearly transformed (BAC × 100) for descriptive purposes such that a 1-unit change in our BAC regressor was equivalent to 0.01% change in mean BAC. Of course, linear transformations do not affect model fit or significant tests.

  3. To examine possible additive and/or interactive effects of BAC limb (i.e., whether participants BAC was ascending vs. descending during the task), we quantified BAC change as post-task BAC minus pre-task BAC. As such, positive scores code for participants on the ascending limb and negative scores code for participants on the descending limb. We added this additional regressor to our GLM in a preliminary analysis. No significant overall effect of BAC change on startle potentiation was observed, F(1,87) = 0.001, p = 0.972. BAC change did not significantly moderate either the overall mean BAC effect or the BAC × threat intensity effect, F (1,87) = 0.02, p = 0.887 and F(2,174) = 1.42, p = 0.245, respectively, indicating that the BAC effects reported in the main analysis were consistent regardless of whether participants were ascending or descending. Finally, when partial effects of BAC and BAC × threat intensity are examined in this model that controls for BAC change, their effects remain significant, F(1, 87) = 10.30, p = 0.002 and F(2, 174) = 3.21, p = 0.049, respectively.

  4. Two participants were missing data on all self-reported individual difference measures and are therefore excluded from these analyses (N = 90).

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Acknowledgements

This research was support by a grant to John J. Curtin from NIAAA (R01AA15384).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI, USA

    Christine A. Moberg, Stefanie M. Weber & John J. Curtin

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  1. Christine A. Moberg
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  2. Stefanie M. Weber
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  3. John J. Curtin
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Correspondence to John J. Curtin.

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Moberg, C.A., Weber, S.M. & Curtin, J.J. Alcohol dose effects on stress response to cued threat vary by threat intensity. Psychopharmacology 218, 217–227 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-011-2304-6

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