# Predicting Alcohol Use and Alcohol Use Disorder Symptoms from Subjective Responses to Alcohol in a Laboratory Social Setting

> **NIH NIH R01** · CARNEGIE-MELLON UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $406,027

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
The proposed project is a new submission by a New and Early Stage Investigator for an R01 (Funding
Opportunity Announcement PAR-16-260).
 The vast majority of alcohol use takes place in social settings, yet nearly all human experimental
research has administered alcohol to individuals in isolation. This research setting dampens reports of
alcohol stimulation, increased positive affect, and decreased negative affect, and it makes it impossible to
measure many of the subjectively pleasant social effects of alcohol that confer increased risk for alcohol
use disorder (AUD) (e.g., increased sociability, decreased social anxiety). Notably, to date, laboratory
subjective responses to alcohol (SRA) in isolation have accounted for between just 4% and 6% of the
variance in future AUD symptoms. The proposed study will be the first to examine the effects of alcohol
in social groups across a number of domains hypothesized to mediate alcohol use, and to test whether
these responses can better predict the development of AUD symptoms. Further, this study will be the first
to examine intermediate real-world drinking experiences using ecological momentary assessment (EMA)
methods in order to evaluate how lab-based SRA translate to risk processes outside of the laboratory.
Three-hundred-eighty-four heavy drinkers (50% female; aged 21-25) will be assembled into 128 three-
person groups. All members of each group will drink over 36-min a moderate dose of alcohol (males:
0.82 g/kg; females: 0.74 g/kg) or a placebo beverage; SRA and social reward (e.g., social bonding) will be
assessed using a broad range of measures across multiple response systems (e.g., self-reports,
observational measures of smiling and speech patterns). Drinking behavior, SRA, and acute alcohol-
related problems will be assessed in daily life during three subsequent EMA bursts, and AUD symptoms
will be assessed at baseline and at 12-month follow-up.
 We predict that participants drinking alcohol will experience more stimulation/positive affect,
craving, and social reward (e.g., social bonding) and less sedation, negative affect, and social discomfort
on the ascending limb of the blood alcohol curve, measured across multiple response systems, than those
drinking placebo. Further, we predict that these lab-based SRA and social reward indices will be
clinically meaningful—that is, we expect that they will prospectively predict SRA, heavier alcohol use,
and more acute alcohol-related problems in daily life, and more AUD symptoms at 12-month follow-up.
Finally, we predict that SRA in daily life will mediate the link between laboratory SRA and AUD
symptoms. We will also test whether individuals at risk for AUD (e.g., due to personality, genetics) are
especially sensitive to alcohol's effects in the lab and in daily life and whether this predicts heavier
alcohol use and the development of more AUD symptoms over time. This work, by developing a
laboratory social drinking paradigm ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9929513
- **Project number:** 5R01AA025936-04
- **Recipient organization:** CARNEGIE-MELLON UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** KASEY G. CRESWELL
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $406,027
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-09-10 → 2022-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9929513

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9929513, Predicting Alcohol Use and Alcohol Use Disorder Symptoms from Subjective Responses to Alcohol in a Laboratory Social Setting (5R01AA025936-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9929513. Licensed CC0.

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