One hundred fifty-four males attending an outpatient diabetes clinic were interviewed to determine the incidence of alcohol use among them and to identify mechanisms by which alcohol use adversely affects the control of diabetes. Specifically, we determined how diabetic patients' use of alcohol is related to compliance with their diabetes treatment regimen, and diabetic patients' expectations of benefits from drinking alcohol and actual alcohol use is related to their quality of life. Greater alcohol use was related to poorer prescribed insulin injection compliance (p < 0.01), and stronger expectations of immediate, positive consequences of drinking alcohol were related to several indices of lower quality of life (p < 0.005). These results imply interactive relationships among diabetics' alcohol use and expectancies, treatment compliance, and quality of life.

Alcohol abusers' and nonabusers' attentional distraction for neutral, alcohol-related, and concern-related (personally relevant) words was assessed with a word-word color-naming task. Abusers, unlike nonabusers, showed greater attentional distraction for alcohol-related than concern-related words. Exploratory analyses indicated that abusers who were more distracted by alcohol-related than concern-related stimuli (i.e., "alcohol distracted") responded more slowly to neutral words than "concern-distracted" participants. The results suggest that the relative degree of distraction by alcohol versus other personally relevant stimuli holds promise for understanding the cognitive and motivational processes underlying alcohol abuse.

The effects of Systematic Motivational Counseling (SMC) on adults following traumatic brain injury (TBI) were assessed. The sample comprised 40 participants in the SMC Group who received 12 individual SMC sessions and 54 participants in the Comparison Group who received no motivational or substance-abuse treatment. Both groups received rehabilitation for their brain injuries. The SMC additionally focused on participants' personal goals and concerns in various areas of their lives, and helped them to formulate and execute concrete and realistic plans for resolving their concerns. To assess changes across time in the SMC Group, motivational structure, positive and negative affect, and substance use were measured at baseline, immediately after the intervention (mean of 10.2 months from baseline), and at a follow-up (mean of 9.1 months later). Because the comparison group had no SMC intervention, only two assessments were taken: at baseline and at a follow-up (mean of 12.8 months later). Across time, the SMC Group showed significant improvements in motivational structure and a significant reduction in negative affect and the use of substances of abuse. There were no corresponding changes in the Comparison Group. The results indicate that SMC improves motivational indices and may help to moderate substance use; hence they suggest a potential role for SMC in the rehabilitation of patients with TBI.

No abstract

Personality and affective statistical predictors of alcohol consumption were assessed among 154 college students who were administered a test of alcohol consumption; personality scales to measure reward seeking, socialization, and punishment avoidance; and scales to measure positive affect and negative affect under 3 conditions (how participants usually felt and how they expected to feel after drinking a small and a large amount of alcohol). Hierarchical regression analysis indicated that alcohol consumption was predicted by gender, reward seeking, socialization, punishment avoidance, and expectations of positive and negative affective change after consuming a large amount of alcohol. Stepwise regression analysis revealed 3 unique contributors to alcohol consumption: gender, punishment avoidance, and expected negative affective change after consuming a large amount of alcohol.