Event-level analyses of energy drink consumption and alcohol intoxication in bar patrons

Caffeinated Alcohol, Sensation Seeking, and Injury Risk

“…13 The consumption of caffeinated alcohol (CaffAlc) has been found to be significantly associated with increased frequency of high-risk drinking behaviors in college students, including heavy episodic drinking and weekly drunkenness. 14 A study of patrons exiting a U.S. college bar district found individuals who consumed CaffAlc to be three times more likely to be legally intoxicated than individuals who consumed alcohol alone, 15 and four times more likely to report intention of driving, compared to patrons who consumed only alcohol. 15 Even after adjusting for the increased alcohol consumed, college students who drank CaffAlc beverages reported significantly higher prevalence of serious alcohol-related consequences, including alcohol-related illness or injury, sexual assault, and riding with a drunken driver.…”

“…14 A study of patrons exiting a U.S. college bar district found individuals who consumed CaffAlc to be three times more likely to be legally intoxicated than individuals who consumed alcohol alone, 15 and four times more likely to report intention of driving, compared to patrons who consumed only alcohol. 15 Even after adjusting for the increased alcohol consumed, college students who drank CaffAlc beverages reported significantly higher prevalence of serious alcohol-related consequences, including alcohol-related illness or injury, sexual assault, and riding with a drunken driver. 14 Several mechanisms have been suggested to explain the observed association between CaffAlc, risky drinking, and alcohol-related harms.…”

Alcohol Mixed with Energy Drink Use and Sexual Risk-Taking: Casual, Intoxicated, and Unprotected Sex

“…These findings were largely replicated by Brache and Stockwell 20 in a Web survey of Canadian students, for whom frequent AmED use was associated with more frequent drinking and with higher odds of heavy episodic drinking, drinking and driving, or being hurt or injured. In an eventlevel field study of bar patrons in a college bar district, Thombs et al 24 found that young adults who had been drinking AmEDs were three times as likely to leave the bar highly intoxicated, and four times as likely to intend to drive that way, compared with those using noncaffeinated alcohol alone. Several other studies using Italian or Canadian college samples [25][26][27] have also found that AmED users were significantly more likely than non-AmED alcohol users to engage in heavy drinking and/or heavy episodic drinking.…”

“…32,37,41,42 Mixing caffeine and alcohol has in fact been demonstrated to result in reduced compensation for deficits in psychomotor performance in the laboratory 43 and in field studies of intentions to drive drunk. 24 Whereas the subjective perception of relative sobriety undermines in-the-moment compensatory vigilance, the erroneous expectation that caffeine will antagonize alcohol may also undermine consciously planned, prospective strategies to minimize risk. Many drinkers routinely use protective strategies to limit alcohol consumption (e.g., spacing drinks and avoiding drinking games) 44,45 or to ameliorate the consequences, sexual or otherwise, of impaired decision-making (e.g., carrying a ''just in case'' condom when partying, or employing a ''friends don't let friends hook up drunk'' buddy monitoring system).…”

Commentary on Pennay et al. (2015): Measuring the effects of alcohol mixed with energy drinks on intoxication with real‐world data

“…Building on work by Thombs et al [6], the paper by Pennay and colleagues [7] is one of the first to examine AmED consumption in social drinking settings using objective measures of intoxication [i.e. breath alcohol concentration (BrAC)].…”