Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The relationship between positive urgency, a personality trait reflecting rash action during extreme positive emotional states, and risk-taking has previously been experimentally examined. However, how positive urgency is related to risk-taking while under the acute influence of alcohol has not been examined. The overarching goal of this dissertation was to generate behavioral evidence concerning how the interaction between positive urgency and alcohol consumption influences risk-taking via changes in emotional arousal. In this study, 59 community dwelling adults (mean age = 29.45 (SD = 10.96), 32.2% women, 78% White) completed mood induction procedures (positive or neutral) while consuming a beverage (alcohol or placebo) and then completed the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) as a measure of risk-taking. The positive mood induction was effective in inducing high arousal positive emotions. Overall, study hypotheses were not supported; however, because of low power, effect sizes and patterns of relationship are reported. The relationship between positive urgency and risk-taking was positive and small in the positive mood condition but negative and small in the neutral mood condition. The alcohol group and the placebo group showed similar patterns of risk-taking that are positive and small. Finally, the relationship between positive urgency changes in emotional arousal was positive and small only in the positive/alcohol condition; however, there was no relationship between changes in emotional arousal and risk-taking. These findings suggest that, while changes in emotional arousal may result from a combination of positive urgency and alcohol consumption, it may not be a focal mechanism that explains the relationship between positive urgency and risk-taking. Further, positive urgency is a risk factor whether or not alcohol consumption is present. Although the small sample size limited the power to test the hypotheses, the effect size estimates obtained in this study provide preliminary data for a more properly powered future study. The pattern of findings suggests the viability of further developing the current positive mood induction to establish a lab-based paradigm for positive urgency and the use of a different experimental risk-taking task to examine positive emotion-based risk-taking.

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Objective: Alcohol use disorder (AUD) remains a leading cause of worldwide mortality and morbidity. The development of neuroanatomical biomarkers offers the potential of novel clinical indicators to guide prevention, early diagnosis, and treatment. Methods: In 76 participants with DSM-5 diagnosed AUD (Mage = 35.75; 51.3% female) and 79 controls (Mage = 34.71; 59.5% female), we utilized magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to investigate four novel measures: hippocampal and amygdalar subregion volumes, sulcal morphology (SM), and fractal dimensionality (FD). MRI processing, segmentation, and SM and FD quantification were completed using FreeSurfer v6.0 and v7.0, and MATLAB toolboxes, respectively. A significance value of p < .05 was employed for analysis and sex, age, and intracranial volume were included as covariates. Results: Volumes of the right presubiculum, subiculum, and molecular layer head; left lateral and accessory basal nuclei; and corticoamygdaloid transition area were significantly lower in AUD participants relative to healthy controls. Widths of the left occipito-temporal, right middle occipital and lunate, and right marginal part of the cingulate sulci and depth of the post-central sulci were significantly increased in AUD participants relative to controls. Finally, decreased left caudate, left thalamus, right putamen and right pallidum FD and greater inferior lateral and third ventricle FD were observed in AUD participants relative to controls. Each novel measure’s reliability was assessed using test-retest data from the Human Connectome Project and indicated high reliability with median intraclass correlations of .93, .91, .88, and .93 for the hippocampal subfields, amygdalar nuclei, SM, and FD, respectively. Conclusion: These results indicate selectively decreased hippocampal and amygdala subregion volume, increased sulcal depth and width, and differences in FD as promising neuroanatomical biomarkers for AUD. / Thesis / Master of Health Sciences (MSc)

The upcoming Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) will change how Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) is characterized by going from a twoactor hierarchical model to a unidimensional disorder. In addition, the number of criteria needed are being reduced—which may increase AUD prevalence rates. The present study examines how these changes will impact college students as compared to their non-college attending peers. Participants were asked to complete questionnaires about their alcohol use and what criteria they meet, a daily functioning questionnaire, and a measure to determine their willingness to engage in risky behaviors. Results indicate that college students will show a disproportionate increase in diagnoses, even though college students who meet criteria show no significant differences in functional impairment compared to students who do not meet criteria. These results suggest that the new criteria may not be a good indicator of AUD presence for college students.

A significant consequence of alcohol use disorders (AUDs) is hippocampal neurodegeneration. The hippocampus is responsible for learning and memory, and neurodegeneration in this brain region has been shown to result in cognitive deficits. Interestingly, some alcoholics demonstrate improvements in hippocampus-dependent functions, potentially due the phenomenon termed adult neurogenesis. Adult neurogenesis, the process by which neural stem cells (NSCs) proliferate, differentiate into neurons, migrate into the granule cell layer, and survive, occurs in two brain regions; however, this study examines only neurogenesis occurring in the subgranular zone of the hippocampal dentate gyrus. Four-day binge ethanol exposure in an animal model causes a decrease in neurogenesis during intoxication; however, there is a reactive increase in cell proliferation on day seven of abstinence. The purpose of this study was to determine the timing of increased cell proliferation. Furthermore, most alcoholics also smoke tobacco, and nicotine, the addictive component of tobacco, has also been shown to affect hippocampal neurogenesis. As many people initiate alcohol and tobacco use during adolescence, the second experiment herein examined the effect of nicotine coadministration on alcohol-induced reactive hippocampal cell proliferation.

published_or_final_version / Community Medicine / Master / Master of Public Health

Alcohol use among male undergraduate students continues to be problematic. Most college drinkers started drinking in high school, but some begin even earlier; their college alcohol problem is just a continuation of earlier practices. The precise reasons that the college environment is particularly risky for alcohol use are not understood.The first and fourth year experience in college appear to be very different. This study has examined the drinking / non-drinking habits of first and fourth year Ball State male students who have or are presently living in the residence halls. There were five first-year and five fourth-year students who were asked questions in a qualitative interview format. Some of the issues which were covered included hangovers, tolerance, drinking games, and music.First and fourth year students act similarly in some areas, while there are significant differences in others. Drinking from the first to the fourth year seems to become progressively moderate. Drinking, and the consequences from drinking are most serious for freshmen and less serious for seniors and upperclass students.All of the respondents had a very high tolerance to alcohol. This was very puzzling considering that most students use their tolerance and the effect of hangovers to determine whether or not they are drinking responsibly. Therefore, because the respondents generally did not get hungover from a night of heavy drinking, they may think that their drinking is responsible, when it fact it may be causing unforeseen harm.Respondents drank for two specific positive reasons: (1) euphoria and (2) malebonding comradary experience. Many of the respondents stated they received some of their emotional and problem-solving support when they were drinking and talking with friends. Music also played an important role in the drinking experience. "Classic" rock and roll was popular among the respondents because of the rhythm and the pro-drug and pro-alcohol lyrics. Drinking games were looked upon as activities to make drinking even more convivial. They also contributed to the male-bonding experience whereby one would be surrounded by friends cheering them on to have another drink.In conclusion, alcohol is a significant problem on the college / university campus. The narrative suggests that although students experiences are individual, there are perceptions about alcohol which are common among many students. These commonalities can be used to provide effective educational programming to students in order to educate about responsible alcohol use. / Fisher Institute for Wellness

Background: Although parental drinking is associated with adolescent drinking, the impacts of parental alcohol-related actions were controversial. The present study aims to 1) examine the prevalence of parental pro-drinking practices (PPDPs), 2) examine the association between PPDPs and parental drinking, 3) identify the factors associated with PPDPs among adolescents with drinking parents, 4) examine the association between PPDPs and adolescent drinking, and 5) explore the experience of PPDPs and alcohol use in adolescents and parents qualitatively. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 2200 secondary 1 to 6 students from 4 randomly selected local schools. Students were asked if they have experienced each of 9 PPDPs including 1) saw parents drank and being drunk; 2) heard parents saying benefits of drinking and certain alcohol tasted good; 3) helped parents buy alcohol, open bottle and pour alcohol; and 4) parental action in encouraging drinking and training of drinking capacity. Logistic regression was used to compute the adjusted odds ratios (AORs) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) of each PPDP by the number of drinking parents, and the drinking frequency of each parent adjusting for socio-demographic variables. Moreover, correlates of PPDPs were identified among students with at least one drinking parent. Furthermore, the AORs and 95% CI of student drinking and drinking intention by each PPDP were computed. A total of 40 families (33 student-parent pairs, 6 students and 1 parent) were then selected for telephone interview. Results: Overall, 67.5% of students experienced at least 1 PPDP with the prevalence of PPDPs ranging from 9.3% for hearing the benefits of drinking to 51.0% for seeing parents drank. The prevalence of PPDP increased dramatically with the number of drinking parents (none 38.8%, either 81.6%, both 89.0%). PPDPs were associated with parental drinking frequency and various socio-demographic factors. For instance, adolescent girls (AOR: 2.28) were more likely to have received parental training of drinking capacity than boys. Frequent paternal and maternal drinking were most strongly associated with helping parents buy alcohol (AOR: 6.55) and training of drinking capacity (AOR: 5.14), respectively. In general, most PPDPs were significantly associated with ever drinking and monthly drinking in students. Both ever and monthly drinking in adolescents were strongly associated with parental training of drinking capacity with AORs of 6.20 and 8.20, respectively. Similarly, each PPDP was significantly associated with adolescent drinking intention with AORs ranging from 1.50 for helping parents buy alcohol to 3.53 for being encouraged by parents to drink. Consistent with quantitative data, the interviews revealed that almost half the students reported PPDPs (N=17/39) and it was common for students to see parents drink (N=7). Of the 17 families reporting involvement in PPDPs, all had at least one drinking parent. Conclusions: Most students experienced PPDPs and its prevalence increased with the number of drinking parents. In drinking parents, PPDPs were associated with socio-demographic factors and parental drinking frequency. Most PPDPs were associated with adolescent drinking and intention to drink. These results suggested that parents should avoid PPDPs to prevent adolescent drinking. / published_or_final_version / Public Health / Master / Master of Philosophy