title: Childhood maltreatment, stressful life events, and alcohol craving in adult drinkers.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Little is known about the relationship between stressful life events and alcohol craving in the general population, and whether a history of childhood maltreatment sensitizes individuals to crave alcohol after adult stressors.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were 22,147 past-year drinkers from Wave 2 (2004 to 2005) of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions. A structured, face-to-face interview assessed past-year stressful life events, alcohol craving, and history of childhood maltreatment. Logistic regression was used to generate adjusted odds ratios (aOR) to evaluate the relationship between stressful life events and craving, adjusting for demographic characteristics and parental history of alcoholism. Interaction between stressful life events and childhood maltreatment was also assessed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared to participants with no stressful life events, those with ≥ 3 events had increased odds of moderate alcohol craving (aOR = 3.15 [95% CI = 2.30 to 4.33]) and severe craving (aOR = 8.47 [95% CI = 4.78 to 15.01]). Stressful life events and childhood maltreatment interacted in predicting severe craving (p = 0.017); those with ≥ 3 events were at higher risk of craving if they had been exposed to childhood maltreatment.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A direct relationship between stressful life events and risk of alcohol craving was observed. Further, history of childhood maltreatment increased the salience of stressful life events in adulthood. Future studies should examine the role of psychiatric comorbidity in more complex models of stress sensitization and alcohol craving.
authors: Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, New York.
authors: June H
authors: JH
authors: Kim
authors: Silvia S
authors: SS
authors: Martins
authors: Dvora
authors: D
authors: Shmulewitz
authors: Julian
authors: J
authors: Santaella
authors: Melanie M
authors: MM
authors: Wall
authors: Katherine M
authors: KM
authors: Keyes
authors: Nicholas R
authors: NR
authors: Eaton
authors: Robert
authors: R
authors: Krueger
authors: Bridget F
authors: BF
authors: Grant
authors: Deborah S
authors: DS
authors: Hasin
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000523:psychology*; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000523:psychology*; D066249:Craving; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012307:Risk Factors; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Alcohol Craving; Childhood Maltreatment; Stress Sensitivity; Stressful Life Events