Amphetamine abuse, alcohol use linked

LEXINGTON, Ky., Dec. 18 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers link consumption of alcohol to increased risk of amphetamine abuse.

Craig Rush of the University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington and colleagues find that ingesting moderate amounts of alcohol may increase an individual's risk of abusing amphetamines -- part of a group of drugs known as stimulants.

Rush and colleagues developed an experiment in which either light or moderate alcohol drinkers were given either placebo or low and high doses of d-amphetamine. Following the initial sessions, the 33 subjects were given the opportunity to earn up to a total of eight capsules containing 12.5 percent of the previous dose by working on a computer task.

The results indicate the high-dose of amphetamines increased drug taking in both light and moderate drinkers. Only the low dose did so with the moderate drinkers, the study says.

"Other future directions could be to look at the influence of alcohol use history on the effects of other drugs of abuse or to determine how acute alcohol administration, as opposed to self-reported drinking history, impacts response to stimulants," Rush says in a statement.

The study is published online ahead of print in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.