Trial reportPsychopharmacology2016
Acute stress increases ad-libitum alcohol consumption in heavy drinkers, but not through impaired inhibitory control.
Trial report in Psychopharmacology, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 36 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
36 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 57 citations in OpenAlex.
- A systematic review with meta-analysis on the relation between acute stress, alcohol consumption and cortisol levels in individuals with a personal, familial or no alcohol use disorder.Translational psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Compliance with ecological momentary assessment protocols in substance users: a meta-analysis.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2019Pooled it
- Alcohol craving under stress in healthy young men: A randomized laboratory study.Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2026Trial
- Effects of couple conflict on alcohol craving: Does intimate partner violence play a role?Addictive behaviors · 2020Trial
- Behavioral Impaired Control over Alcohol: Comparing Self-Medication and Behavioral Economic Models with the Interacting Effects of Acute Stress, Chronic Stress with Physical Neglect History, and Sex Assigned at Birth.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Within-person change in alcohol consumption and associated factors during a public health crisis.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Alcohol Use Disorder-Stress, Sense of Coherence, and Its Impact on Satisfaction with Life.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Social influence increases the value and consumption of alcohol in the laboratory.Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2025Article
- Modifying Informed Consent to Help Address Functional Unmasking in Psychedelic Clinical Trials.JAMA psychiatry · 2025Review
- EEG Evidence of Acute Stress Enhancing Inhibition Control by Increasing Attention.Brain sciences · 2024Article
- Acute psychosocial stress modulates neural and behavioral substrates of cognitive control.Human brain mapping · 2024Article
- The ad-libitum taste test as measure of momentary alcohol use in the laboratory: an investigation of construct validity and confounding factors.Psychopharmacology · 2024Article
- Inter- and transgenerational heritability of preconception chronic stress or alcohol exposure: Translational outcomes in brain and behavior.Neurobiology of stress · 2024Article
- Measuring the Intensity of Stress Experienced and Its Impact on Life in Patients with Diagnosed Alcohol Use Disorder.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- Does loneliness before the age of twelve indirectly affect impaired control over drinking, alcohol use, and problems through perceived stress?Addictive behaviors reports · 2022Article
- Underlying mechanisms in the relationship between stress and alcohol consumption in regular and risky drinkers (MESA): methods and design of a randomized laboratory study.BMC psychology · 2022Article
- Meaning in life and stress-related drinking: A multicohort study of college students during the COVID-19 pandemic.Addictive behaviors · 2022Article
- Momentary associations between stress and alcohol craving in the naturalistic environment: differential associations for Black and White young adults.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2022Observational
- Review of Changes in the Reinforcing Effects of Alcohol in Weight Loss Surgery Patients.Current psychiatry reports · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
rationaleStress increases alcohol consumption and the risk of relapse, but little is known about the psychological mechanisms that underlie these effects. One candidate mechanism is inhibitory control, which may be impaired by acute stress and is believed to exert a causal influence on alcohol consumption.
objectivesWe investigated if acute stress would impair inhibitory control and if impaired inhibitory control would be associated with subsequent ad-libitum alcohol consumption in a naturalistic laboratory setting. MATERIALS AND
methodsOne hundred heavy drinkers took part in an experimental study in a naturalistic 'bar laboratory'. Participants were randomly assigned to an acute stress (n = 50) or control (n = 50) group. In the stress group, participants were exposed to the social evaluative threat of giving a self-critical presentation, whereas the control group completed simple anagrams. Prior to and following the manipulation, participants completed the stop signal task as a measure of inhibitory control. Finally, participants completed a bogus taste test, as a measure of ad-libitum alcohol consumption.
resultsThe stress manipulation had no effect on performance on the stop signal task. However, there was a small but significant increase in ad-libitum alcohol consumption in the acute stress group compared to that in the control group.
conclusionsAcute stress increased alcohol consumption in heavy drinkers, in a semi-naturalistic setting. However, this was not through the hypothesised mechanism of a transient impairment in inhibitory control.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.