(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- The amount of alcohol you drink before a traumatic
event could have a direct influence on how much impact that memory has on your
mental health in the future.
In a new study, participants drank either alcohol or a placebo and then
performed a virtual reality task that examined how a past event was stored in
the memory. The participants were also shown a video of serious car accidents
and recorded the number of times they had a flashback to the footage over the
next seven days.
Those who drank a small amount of alcohol had trouble remembering things about
the event that depended on context, while they had no trouble recalling a visual
"snapshot" of the event. Higher amounts of alcohol caused both types of memory
to be reduced.
Study authors say moderate alcohol consumption exaggerates the reduction of
contextual memory, the type of memory that stores the context of an event. When
this type of memory is reduced, the other type of memory -- which stores a
visual "snapshot" of the event -- is re-experienced more often, causing more
flashbacks. Similarly, if a person drinks heavily, both types of memory are
affected, leading to fewer flashbacks and trouble remembering the event
altogether.
"Many people who experience a personally traumatic event such as rape or a road
traffic accident have consumed alcohol beforehand," lead researcher James Bisby,
of University College London's Department of Clinical, Educational & Health
Psychology, was quoted as saying. "For the first time, this research gives us an
idea of how being under the influence of alcohol might contribute to our well
being later on." |
Source: Biological Psychiatry, published online March 2, 2010
