Women’s Stress-Related Drinking Linked to Early Abuse

Early life stress can increase vulnerability to stress-related drinking in women, especially in response to events that are not under their control, according to a recent study. This study is the first to examine whether adults with a history of maltreatment during childhood drink more heavily in reaction to stressful life events.

The study explored the stress sensitization hypothesis, which is the idea that early life stress leads to long-term psychobiological changes in the brain, increasing sensitivity to future stressful life events (SLEs) and raising the risk for stress-related drinking. The researchers interviewed 4,038 adult twins to examine early life stress, past-year SLEs, and drinking patterns. The study defined early life stress as maltreatment, including physical abuse, sexual abuse, or neglect before the age of 15. Later SLEs included job loss, major financial problems, legal problems, marital problems, robbery, and serious illness. Researchers categorized stressors by whether they were likely caused by an individual’s own behavior or by independent or “fateful” factors. The study also considered the possible effects of depression related to childhood maltreatment as a cause for stress-related drinking.

Among women who reported maltreatment before age 15, those with more independent SLEs (not caused by the individual’s behavior) drank more heavily. Researchers did not see this association among women without a history of maltreatment. Among men, there was little evidence that childhood maltreatment affected the association between SLEs and stress-related drinking. Further, for women with a history of maltreatment, stress-related drinking was not found to be related to symptoms of depression.

According to the authors, “Given that women are more vulnerable than men to both the short and long-term adverse physiological consequences of heavy drinking, ... a better understanding of how childhood maltreatment and other kinds of childhood trauma increase risk for stress-related drinking is important for reducing the health impact of drinking in women.”

The article abstract can be found here:

Interactive effects of childhood maltreatment and recent stressful life events on alcohol consumption in adulthood.