Word: nixonize
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...rate their level of intoxication on a scale of 1 to 10. While the older people were more impaired by the alcohol, they also consistently underestimated their drunkenness. That may be because over the years, people become inured to the effects of social drinking, says Dr. Sara Jo Nixon, the senior researcher on the paper. "It's a subtle effect," she says. "It's not one of those where you readily think, 'Oh my God, I shouldn't be driving.'" (See pictures of Denver, Beer Country...
...that's precisely the danger, says Nixon, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Florida who specializes in substance abuse. She and her colleagues wanted to study the effects of a relatively small amount of alcohol, the amount adults - mature adults, that is - might typically consume at dinner or in other social settings where drinking isn't the main event. Researchers tailored the composition of their cocktails - a mixture of medical-grade alcohol and limeade - to the participants' weight and gender, to achieve an average blood-alcohol content of .04%, half the legal driving limit in most states...
...Alcohol researchers parse the effects of intoxication - both on the ascending arm of the curve, in which people are on the road to drunkenness, and the descending arm, as the booze wears off. Generally speaking, on the upward slope, alcohol has a stimulating effect - "social lubrication," says Nixon. But on the down slope, as the alcohol is metabolized, its effects are more sedating. To measure the relationship between people's actual and perceived impairment along this continuum, researchers tested subjects twice, at 25 min. and 75 min. after they'd begun drinking. The two motor-skills tasks used to measure...
...adults believed they were less impaired as the alcohol's effects first hit; later, however, as they started sobering up, they perceived themselves as much more affected. "On the ascending limb, the [older] adults who got alcohol performed significantly more poorly, but they didn't think they were impaired," Nixon says. "On the descending limb, the older adults thought they were impaired, but at that point alcohol didn't have any impact on their performance." As to why the more seasoned social drinkers may be out of sync, Nixon says, "Older adults are mentally more sensitive to the sedative effect...
...chronic medical conditions were ruled out, as were cigarette smokers, substance abusers and the extremely overweight. However, several participants in both age groups were taking over-the-counter or prescription medications for conditions ranging from depression to high blood pressure, a situation that accurately reflects the general population, says Nixon. Researchers deliberately chose "young" adults around 30 to make sure they were at least several years removed from the undergraduate binge-drinking culture. She notes that the less consistently people binge-drink, the more vulnerable they become to the effects, and after-effects, of alcohol (which is why you rarely...