Childhood Maltreatment, Stressful Life Events, and Alcohol Craving in Adult Drinkers. (24th June 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kim, June H.; Martins, Silvia S.; Shmulewitz, Dvora; Santaella, Julian; Wall, Melanie M.; Keyes, Katherine M.; Eaton, Nicholas R.; Krueger, Robert; Grant, Bridget F.; Hasin, Deborah S.
• Is Part Of: Alcoholism. Volume 38:Number 7(2014:Jul.)
• Page Start: 2048
• Page End: 2055
• Publication Date: 2014-06-24
• Subjects: Alcoholism -- Periodicals; Alcoholism -- Periodicals; Alcoolisme; Electronic journals; Périodique électronique (Descripteur de forme); Ressource Internet (Descripteur de forme); 616.861005
• DOI: 10.1111/acer.12473
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0145-6008

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" id="acer12473-abs-0001"> <title> <x xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <sec id="acer12473-sec-0001" sec-type="section"> <title>Background</title> <p>Little is known about the relationship between stressful life events and alcohol craving in the general population, and whether a history of childhood maltreatment sensitizes individuals to crave alcohol after adult stressors.</p> </sec> <sec id="acer12473-sec-0002" sec-type="section"> <title>Methods</title> <p>Participants were 22, 147 past‐year drinkers from Wave 2 (2004 to 2005) of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions. A structured, face‐to‐face interview assessed past‐year stressful life events, alcohol craving, and history of childhood maltreatment. Logistic regression was used to generate adjusted odds ratios (aOR) to evaluate the relationship between stressful life events and craving, adjusting for demographic characteristics and parental history of alcoholism. Interaction between stressful life events and childhood maltreatment was also assessed.</p> </sec> <sec id="acer12473-sec-0003" sec-type="section"> <title>Results</title> <p>Compared to participants with no stressful life events, those with ≥3 events had increased odds of moderate alcohol craving (aOR = 3.15 [95% CI = 2.30 to 4.33]) and severe craving (aOR = 8.47 [95% CI = 4.78 to 15.01]). Stressful life events and childhood maltreatment interacted in predicting severe craving (<italic>p</italic> = 0.017); those with ≥3 events were at higher risk of craving if they had been exposed to childhood maltreatment.</p> </sec> <sec id="acer12473-sec-0004" sec-type="section"> <title>Conclusions</title> <p>A direct relationship between stressful life events and risk of alcohol craving was observed. Further, history of childhood maltreatment increased the salience of stressful life events in adulthood. Future studies should examine the role of psychiatric comorbidity in more complex models of stress sensitization and alcohol craving.</p> </sec> </abstract>