Family history of alcohol dependence and gray matter abnormalities in non-alcoholic adults
published in 'World Journal of Biological Psychiatry', 2012
Objectives. Alcohol-use disorders in adolescents are associated with gray matter (GM) abnormalities suggesting... more Objectives. Alcohol-use disorders in adolescents are associated with gray matter (GM) abnormalities suggesting neurotoxicity by alcohol. However, recently similar GM abnormalities were found in non-drinking children with a family history (FH) of alcohol dependence (AD). The question thus rises whether these abnormalities represent a transient delay in brain maturation or a persistent risk factor for developing neuropsychiatric disorders, rather than a (neurotoxic) consequence of AD. This study investigated whether a FH of AD in non-drinking adults is associated with abnormal GM-volumes similar to those observed in drinking and non-drinking adolescents with a FH of AD. Methods. GM-images were analyzed using Voxel-Based Morphometry in non-alcoholics with (FH+; N = 36) and without (FH-; N = 107) familial AD. Additionally we controlled for possible confounders: diagnosis of depression/anxiety, childhood trauma and familial depression/anxiety. Results. Smaller GM-volumes were shown in the right parahippocampal gyrus in FH+ compared with FH-. Results were unaffected by confounders. Conclusions. We demonstrated an effect of familial AD in non-alcoholic adults on GM volume in the parahippocampal gyrus, similar to drinking and non-drinking FH+ adolescents. These findings suggest that GM abnormalities in the parahippocampal gyrus represent a persistent biological susceptibility for AD or related psychopathology and not neurotoxicity of alcohol or delayed brain maturation.
Changes in alcohol-related problems after alcohol policy changes in Denmark, Finland, and Sweden
Co-authored with Kim Bloomfield, Matthias Wicki, Pia Mäkelä, Robin Room
Published in 'Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs', 2010
Objective: European Union travelers’ allowances for alcohol import to Denmark, Sweden, and Finland were abolished in... more
Objective: European Union travelers’ allowances for alcohol import to Denmark, Sweden, and Finland were abolished in 2004. In addition, excise taxes on alcohol were lowered in 2003 and 2005 in Denmark, and in 2004 in Finland. Using northern Sweden as a control site, this study examines whether levels of reported alcohol problems have changed in Denmark, Finland, and southern Sweden as a consequence of these policy changes.
Method: Annual cross-sectional surveys were conducted in Denmark, Finland, and Sweden from 2003 to 2006. Five dependency items and seven extrinsic alcohol-related problems were examined. Changes were analyzed within each country/region with logistic regressions and tested for short- and long-term changes. Differential change was also tested between each country and the control site, northern Sweden.
Results: Prevalence of alcohol problems decreased over the study period. Only in selected subgroups did problems increase. This mainly occurred in the samples for northern Sweden and Finland, and mostly among older age groups and men. In relation to the control site, however, no increases in problem prevalence were found.
Conclusions: Our fi ndings on a decline in reported alcohol problems largely agree with published reports on alcohol consumption over the same period in the study countries. They do not agree, however, with fi ndings on changes in health and social statistics in Finland and Denmark, where some significant increases in alcohol-related harm have been found.
Download (.pdf) Changes in Alcohol Availability, Price and Alcohol-related Problems and the Collectivity of Drinking Cultures: What Happened in Southern and Northern Sweden?
Published in 'Alcohol and Alcoholism', 2010
Aims: The aims of this study were to study whether alcohol-related self-reported problems follow the same pattern of... more
Aims: The aims of this study were to study whether alcohol-related self-reported problems follow the same pattern of
changes in alcohol consumption in southern Sweden, assumed to be affected by a decrease in Danish spirits tax and by an increase in Swedish travellers’ import quotas, and to study whether the results obtained for southern and northern Sweden follow the predictions of Skog’s theory of collectivity of drinking cultures.
Methods: Analysis was carried out on a sample from the Swedish
general population from southern and northern Sweden separately. Two indices such as impaired self-control/dependent behaviour and extrinsic problems for alcohol-related problems were computed and analysed in terms of sex, age, income and alcohol consumption level.
Results: Although there were no huge changes in the number of persons reporting alcohol-related problems, the general trend in data for various subpopulations was a decrease in the southern site and an increase in the northern site. In the northern site,
the increase in alcohol consumption among men also showed an increase in alcohol-related problems. However, various population subgroups changed in different directions and did not move in concert over the population distribution.
Conclusions: Analysis confirmed that alcohol-related problems, according to the two indices used, followed a similar pattern to alcohol consumption, but less divergent. A version of Skog’s theory applied on alcohol-related problems could not confirm that alcohol-related problems did not change collectively within the population.