Next day effects of a normal night's drinking on memory and psychomotor performance.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate in social drinkers the effects of a 'normal' evening of drinking alcohol on cognitive performance.


METHODS
Aiming for ecological validity, the study required participants to consume their usual quantity of any type of alcoholic beverage in their chosen company (hangover situation). However, the timing of drinking was restricted to the period between 22:00 and 02:00 hours on the night before testing. Testing included memory and psychomotor performance tests; testing was also performed after an evening of abstinence (no hangover situation), following a counterbalanced design using repeated measures, with time of testing (09:00, 11:00 and 13:00 hours) and order of testing (hangover/no hangover; no hangover/hangover) as 'between participant' factors in the analysis.


RESULTS
Forty-eight social drinkers (33 women, 15 men) aged between 18 and 43 years were tested, with a 1-week interval between test sessions. The morning after alcohol (mean consumption: 14.7 units for men; 10.4 units for women), free recall was impaired at 09:00 hours and delayed recognition and psychomotor performance were impaired throughout the morning, despite blood alcohol levels of zero or very near zero.


CONCLUSIONS
Memory and psychomotor performance is impaired on the morning after heavy 'social' drinking.
University of Ulster, Derry, Northern Ireland. adele.mckinney@qub.ac.uk
Adele
A
McKinney
Kieran
K
Coyle
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000097:blood / Q000503:physiopathology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001143:Arousal / Q000187:drug effects; D000431:Ethanol / Q000097:blood; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007494:Ireland; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000187:drug effects*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000187:drug effects*; D012890:Sleep
D000431:Ethanol