Lifetime heavy drinking years predict alcohol use disorder severity over and above current alcohol use

ABSTRACT

Background: Preclinical studies demonstrate that chronic and heavy alcohol use facilitates neuroadaptations that perpetuate addiction-like behaviors. In clinical studies, it is unclear whether the extent of heavy alcohol use over the lifetime contributes to alcohol use disorder (AUD) severity over and above current alcohol use patterns (i.e. last 30 days to 3-months). Such information may improve our understanding of the phenomenology of AUD.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine lifetime heavy drinking years in relation to a clinical assessment of AUD.

Methods: Participants, who were non-treatment-seeking and engaged in heavy drinking (n = 140; 50% male), completed an interview-based assessment of lifetime regular and heavy drinking years along with a battery of measures indexing alcohol use and problems, drinking motives, and depression and anxiety symptomatology.

Results: Lifetime heavy drinking years was positively associated with lifetime regular drinking years, current alcohol use, alcohol problems, tonic alcohol craving, drinking for the enhancing effects of alcohol, and drinking to cope (r’s = .21–.58). Adjusting for lifetime regular drinking years and current alcohol use, lifetime heavy drinking years predicted higher scores on the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT; B = .382; SE = .123). A multivariate logistic regression found that lifetime heavy drinking years predicted greater odds of more severe AUD over and above current alcohol use (OR = 1.147).

Conclusion: Our findings suggest that lifetime heavy drinking years are a clinically meaningful indicator of AUD severity that is not redundant with current alcohol use measures.

KEYWORDS:

• alcohol use disorder
• heavy drinking
• addiction
• alcohol
• AUD severity

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website.

Additional information

Funding

SJN and SD were supported by funds from the National Institute on Drug Abuse [T32DA024635]. LAR was supported by funds from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism [K24AA025704].