Energy Drinks Mixed With Alcohol Enhance the Urge to Drink :Study

A study says mixing of alcohol with energy drinks increases the urge to drink more and affects drinking behavior.

The researcher, Dr Rebecca McKetin of Centre for Research on Ageing, Health and Wellbeing at the Australian National University, says earlier studies have shown that mixing of alcohol with energy drink boost the tendency to drink more among the young adults.

A U.S. study published last year revealed that adding energy drink to alcohol causes the "priming effect". This "priming effect" is a measure of how an alcoholic drink incites a person to keep on drinking, says McKetin.

The Australian National University carried further research on this. The study involved 75 participants (46 women, 29 men) between the ages 18 and 30. Each participant was given a cocktail of double vodka shot combined with either soda water or an energy drink and fruit drink.

The participants were asked to fill a questionnaire before and after the cocktail drink and the results showed that participants who had a combination of alcohol and energy drink had the urge to drink more.

"The real risk of this combination is that people feel they aren't drunk when they are. That's because caffeine wards off the sedation that normally comes when you drink," explained Dr. Charles O'Brien, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania and director of the Centre for Studies in Addiction.  

"While drinking helps people to feel more gregarious and socially disinhibited, drinking too much makes people more sleepy, causes a loss of judgment, and renders them unable to perform basic tasks like driving, and all this happens while having the illusion of being more awake, so people who might normally go home and sleep it off, may not and they may choose to stay at the bar, keep on drinking, and raise the risk for a dangerous situation " Dr. Sean Patrick Nordt director of toxicology in the department of emergency medicine at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine told to U.S news  

Based on the study it cannot be concluded whether the energy drinks are leading to higher alcohol consumption but there is a relevant relation between the energy drink consumption and heavy drinking.

The study authors say there are many key factor in one's decision to drink or not. The energy drink-alcohol duo "probably puts people in more high-risk situations." said Dr. Nordt.