Emotional memory bias in binge drinking women.

BACKGROUND: Heightened emotionality and overrepresentation of memories are typical features of adolescence. Binge drinking (BD) during emerging adulthood has been linked to cognitive difficulties such as deficits in episodic memory. Despite that impairments in emotional functioning have been associated with the development of alcohol use disorders, particularly in females, the emotional sphere has been relatively unexplored in BDs. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the effects of BD in emotional episodic memory from a gender perspective. METHODS: One hundred and eighty (96 females) university students were followed during two years (18-20 years old) and their alcohol use was recorded. In the last assessment, participants completed an emotional list-learning task. Generalized linear mixed models were applied separately for males and females, in accordance with sex differences in the development of emotion circuitry. RESULTS: In females, BD was associated with an emotional memory bias in favour of negative information and lower recall of positive and neutral words. In addition, females BDs showed more false alarms for negative distractors. Whereas in males, no alcohol-related effects were found. CONCLUSIONS: Female BDs present a negative memory bias, poor learning and delayed episodic recall linked to the interference of negative content, which suggests difficulties in disengaging attention to salient negative stimuli and a reduction of inhibitory capacities. This might result in greater vulnerability to alcohol-related emotional disturbances among women. Further research is needed to understand the role of emotional regulation in the escalation of alcohol abuse from a gender perspective.

Working memory over a six-year period in young binge drinkers.

Adolescence and early adulthood are periods of particular vulnerability to the neurotoxic effects of alcohol. Young people with alcohol-use disorders display deficits in working memory (WM). This function is supported by the prefrontal cortex, a late-maturing brain region. However, little is known about the progression of cognitive dysfunctions associated with a binge-drinking (BD) pattern of alcohol consumption among non-clinical adolescents. The objective of this study was to analyze the relationship between BD trajectory and WM in university students. An initial sample of 155 male and female first-year university students was followed prospectively over 6 years. The participants were classified as stable non-BDs, stable BDs, and ex-BDs, according to the third item of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). WM was assessed using the Self-Ordered Pointing Task. Generalized linear mixed models were applied. The results showed that stable BDs committed more total perseverative errors and showed a lower WM span in the difficult blocks than stable non-BDs. Difficulties in WM span showed some improvement, whereas perseveration errors remained constant throughout the follow-ups in the stable BDs. There were no significant differences between ex-BDs and non-BDs. In conclusion, stable BD is associated with WM deficits, particularly perseverations and low WM span in demanding trials, when compensatory mechanisms may no longer be successful. The partial improvement in WM span may support the notion of a neuromaturational delay, whereas the temporal stability of perseveration deficits may reflect either neurotoxic effects of alcohol or premorbid characteristics. Abandoning the BD pattern of alcohol consumption may lead to partial recovery.

Factores relacionados con el consumo de fármacos psicotrópicos: una revisión / Factor related with psychotropic drugs: a review

Fundamento: Actualmente los fármacos psicotrópicos son uno de los grupos farmacológicos que más se prescriben y consumen, principalmente las benzodiacepinas y los tranquilizantes. Esto se debe probablemente, a que casi la mitad de los motivos de consulta en atención primaria están estrechamente relacionados con problemas de salud mental y la mayoría de las prescripciones de estos fármacos se realizan en dichas consultas. Además debemos tener en cuenta el gran poder de los medios de comunicación que inciden en las pautas de prescripción. Métodos: Revisión de los factores sociodemográficos y sociomédicos relacionados con el consumo de los fármacos psicotrópicos mediante una búsqueda bibliográfica en la que seleccionamos diferentes artículos en inglés y español realizados en distintos países tanto europeos como americanos. Resultados: En los artículos revisados encontramos que el consumo fue mayor en personas de más edad, mujeres, parados y pensionistas, los que consideraron su salud como mala o muy mala, y los que padecían algún trastorno físico y/psíquico. Conclusiones: Los factores estudiados no explican en su totalidad el elevado consumo de estos fármacos, por ello creemos que este artículo puede ser una ayuda a la hora de plantear nuevos estudios sobre psicotrópicos y de gran interés para la planificación y optimización de los recursos por parte del Sistema Nacional de Salud (AU)