title: Does drinking reduce stress?
abstract: For centuries, people have used alcohol to relieve stress--that is, the interpretation of an event as signaling harm, loss, or threat. The organism usually responds to stress with a variety of behavioral, biological, and cognitive changes. Alcohol consumption can result in a stress-response dampening (SRD) effect, which can be assessed using various measures. Numerous individual differences and situational factors help determine the extent to which a person experiences SRD after consuming alcohol. Individual differences include a family history of alcoholism, personality traits, extent of self-consciousness, cognitive functioning, and gender. Situational factors influencing alcohol's SRD effect include distractions during a stressful situation and the timing of drinking and stress. The attention-allocation model and the appraisal disruption model have been advanced to explain the influence of those situational factors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Sayette
mesh_terms: D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000517:prevention & control*