According to a study published in the journal Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, stress is more likely to trigger heavy drinking in women than in men.
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For the research, the team invited 105 men and 105 women to visit their laboratory, which they designed to look like a bar, with stools, an actual bartender and lively conversations. They were randomised into different groups, with some either experiencing a stressful situation and others a non-stressful situation. All participants had unrestricted access to alcoholic drinks from the bar for 90 minutes.
As per the findings, both the men and women exposed to stress during the study drank heavier than the other participants. Among the stressed men, those who started with alcohol consumed more of it overall than those who started with non-alcoholic beverages. The stressed women, however, drank more across the board, no matter if they started out with an alcoholic drink or not.
Though rates of alcohol misuse are higher in men than women, women are catching up and have a greater risk of developing alcohol-related problems, researchers concluded.
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