Duh! Study of the Week: Energy Drinks, Alcohol a Dangerous Mix

February 12, 2010

Business Week

By Robert Preidt

Mixing caffeine-laden energy drinks and alcohol is popular among young Americans, but it can lead to higher rates of drunkenness and impaired driving, a new study suggests.

University of Florida researchers surveyed more than 800 college-age patrons leaving bars between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m. The participants were asked about their energy drink and alcohol consumption and then had their breath-alcohol concentration levels measured.

The 6.5 percent of participants who said they’d been drinking alcohol mixed with energy drinks were three times more likely to be drunk than those who consumed alcohol only. The average breath-alcohol reading for those who consumed alcohol and energy drinks was 0.109, well above the legal limit of 0.08, the study authors noted.

The researchers also found that bar patrons who mixed alcohol and energy drinks left the bar later, drank for longer periods of time, and were four times more likely to say they planned to drive within the hour, compared to those who drank alcohol only, according to the report in the April issue of the journal Addictive Behaviors.

“There’s a very common misconception that if you drink caffeine with an alcoholic beverage the stimulant effect of the caffeine counteracts the depressant effect of the alcohol, and that is not true,” study co-author Bruce Goldberger, director of toxicology in the University of Florida College of Medicine, said in a news release from the school.

Caffeine simply reduces the sleepy feeling caused by alcohol. This condition, described as “wide awake and drunk,” can lead to risky behaviors, Goldberger explained.

It’s believed that as many as 28 percent of college drinkers consume alcohol mixed with energy drinks in a typical month.

“This study demonstrates that there definitely is reason for concern and more research is needed,” study author Dennis Thombs, an associate professor in the department of behavioral science and community health at the University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions, said in the news release.

“We don’t know what self-administered caffeine levels bar patrons are reaching, what are safe and unsafe levels of caffeine, and what regulations or policies should be implemented to better protect bar patrons or consumers in general,” Thombs added.

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Viagra for Women?

November 25, 2009

Breitbart

A drug that failed to fight the blues could be the female answer to the little blue pill Viagra, the lead North American investigator analysing tests of the drug said Tuesday.

Women who took the drug flibanserin when it was being tested as an anti-depressant said it didn’t help them beat the glums, but did give them “an increase in libido that they liked,” John Thorp, one of the investigators analyzing data from three clinical trials of the drug, told AFP.

Lack of desire is the most common sexual problem in women aged 30 to 60, just as erectile dysfunction, for which Viagra is one of a choice of treatments, is the most common sexual disorder among men in the same age bracket, Thorp said.

“Men remain interested but can’t act or perform properly and women lose interest,” said Thorp.

“So where Viagra and other erectile dysfunction medications work in the blood supply, flibanserin works in the brain,” he said.

In the light of the women’s reactions to flibanserin, the German drug company that had first tested the drug as a treatment for depression, Boehringer Ingelheim, several years ago began exploring the possibilities of it being the active ingredient in the female answer to Viagra.

Clinical trials were held in Canada, Europe and the United States to test the drug’s efficacy in raising the level of sexual desire in women.

Nearly 2,000 pre-menopausal women were given flibanserin or a placebo for 24 weeks and asked to report back to researchers or make diary entries on six variables, including the number of satisfactory sexual encounters they had and their level of sexual desire.

The studies found that 100 milligrams a day of flibanserin resulted in “significant improvements” in the two variables.

Flibanserin is currently an investigational drug and is only available to women taking part in clinical trials.

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