Controlled Substance
Leonie Reutner & Michaela Wänke
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Persuading people to follow a behavioral recommendation can be attempted by outlining the negative consequences for those performing this behavior or by outlining the negative consequences for others. Prior research has shown that reminding people of money (e.g., touching money) leads to higher self-sufficiency resulting in more self-focused and less social behavior. Consequently, the authors show that touching money also affects the persuasiveness of arguments focusing on the self versus other people. After reading an argument outlining the negative consequences of a behavior (e.g., smoking) for the person performing that behavior (e.g., premature skin aging), participants reported stronger intentions to abstain from that behavior when they had previously touched money compared to a control group. In contrast, following arguments that stressed the negative consequences the behavior had for other people (e.g., children imitating smoking behavior), participants who had touched money reported less inclination for behavioral change compared to a control group.
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The Effects of Cannabis Use on Physical and Mental Health
Jan van Ours & Jenny Williams
Journal of Health Economics, July 2012, Pages 564-577
Abstract:
This paper investigates whether cannabis use affects physical and mental health. To do so, information on prime aged individuals living in Amsterdam in 1994 is used. Dutch data offer a clear advantage in estimating the health impacts of cannabis use because the legal status of cannabis in the Netherlands ensures that estimates are free from confounding with the physical and psychological effects of engaging in a criminal activity. Accounting for selection into cannabis use and shared frailties in mental and physical health, the results suggest that cannabis use reduces the mental wellbeing of men and women and the physical wellbeing of men. Although statistically significant, the magnitude of the effect of using cannabis on mental and physical health is found to be small.
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Behavioral Economics and the Demand for Alcohol: Results from the NLSY97
Henry Saffer, Dhaval Dave & Michael Grossman
NBER Working Paper, June 2012
Abstract:
The behavioral economic model presented in this paper argues that the effect of advertising and price differ by past consumption levels. The model predicts that advertising is more effective in reducing consumption at high past consumption levels but less effective at low past consumption levels. Conversely, the model predicts that higher prices are effective in reducing consumption at low past consumption levels but less effective at high past consumption levels. Unlike the models used in most prior studies, this model predicts that the effects of policy on average consumption and on the upper end of the distribution are different. Both FMM and Quantile models were estimated. The results from these regressions show that heavy drinkers are more responsive to advertising and less responsive to price than are moderate drinkers. The empirical evidence also supports the assumption that education is a proxy for self-regulation. The key conclusions are that restrictions on advertising are targeted at heavy drinkers and are an underutilized alcohol control policy. Higher excise taxes on alcohol reduce consumption by moderate drinkers and are of less importance in reducing heavy consumption.
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Induced innovation and technology trajectory: Evidence from smoking cessation products
Seth Werfel & Adam Jaffe
Research Policy, forthcoming
Abstract:
Economic theory predicts that policies that discourage the consumption of a particular good will induce innovation in a socially desirable substitute. However, the literature on technology trajectories emphasizes the possibility of innovation waves associated with the identification of new dominant designs. We incorporate both of these possibilities in a model of the invention of new smoking cessation products, based on a new dataset of patents on such products from 1951 to 2004. We find that an increase in cigarette tax levels had no discernible impact on the industry-wide rate of invention in smoking cessation products. However, we do find evidence consistent with the emergence of dominant designs having substantial positive innovation effects. We estimate that the introduction of the nicotine gum and patch increased the overall rate of patenting activity in smoking cessation products by 60-75%, subject to a 10% rate of decay. Finally, we show that these products had greater effects on the patenting of corporations than individual inventors.
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Jason Fletcher
Journal of Population Economics, October 2012, Pages 1265-1286
Abstract:
In order to address empirical difficulties in research examining peer effects in alcohol consumption, I use instrumental variables/fixed effects methodology that compares students in different grades within the same school who face a different set of classmate decisions. Within this context, I suggest that alcohol availability in classmates' homes and classmates' parents' alcohol abuse can be used as instruments. Results indicate that a 10% increase in the proportion of classmates who drink increases the likelihood an individual drinks by five percentage points. This paper also provides evidence of peer effects in problem drinking, such as binge drinking and drunkenness.
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Susan Cochran, Christine Grella & Vickie Mays
Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, July 2012, Pages 675-685
Objective: Illicit drug and heavy alcohol use is more common among sexual minorities compared with heterosexuals. This difference has sometimes been attributed to more tolerant substance use norms within the gay community, although evidence is sparse. The current study investigated the role of perceived drug availability and tolerant injunctive norms in mediating the linkage between minority sexual orientation status and higher rates of prior-year substance use.
Method: We used data from the second California Quality of Life Survey (Cal-QOL II), a followback telephone survey in 2008-2009 of individuals first interviewed in the population-based 2007 California Health Interview Survey. The sample comprised 2,671 individuals, oversampled for minority sexual orientation. Respondents were administered a structured interview assessing past-year alcohol and illicit drug use, perceptions of perceived illicit drug availability, and injunctive norms concerning illicit drug and heavier alcohol use. We used structural equation modeling methods to test a mediational model linking sexual orientation and substance use behaviors via perceptions of drug availability and social norms pertaining to substance use.
Results: Compared with heterosexual individuals, sexual minorities reported higher levels of substance use, perceived drug availability, and tolerant social norms. A successfully fitting model suggests that much of the association between minority sexual orientation and substance use is mediated by these sexual orientation-related differences in drug availability perceptions and tolerant norms for substance use.
Conclusions: Social environmental context, including subcultural norms and perceived drug availability, is an important factor influencing substance use among sexual minorities and should be addressed in community interventions.
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Aleksandar Kecojevic et al.
Addictive Behaviors, forthcoming
Objective: Prescription drug misuse is an important public health problem in the U.S, particularly among adolescents and young adults. Few studies have examined factors contributing to initiation into prescription drug misuse, including sexual orientation and childhood abuse and neglect. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the relationship between initiation into the misuse of prescription drugs (opioids, tranquilizers, and stimulants), sexual identity, and individual and family determinants.
Method: Results are based upon data from a cross-sectional survey of 560 youth (polydrug users, homeless youth, and injection drug users) aged 18 to 25 who reported current prescription drug misuse. Participants were recruited in Los Angeles and New York City between 2009 and 2011. We compared initiation behaviors between sexual minority and heterosexual youth and examined factors modifying the relationship between sexual identity and earlier initiation into prescription drug misuse.
Results: Sexual minority youth were more likely to report histories of initiation into misuse of prescription opioids and tranquilizers. Further, they were more likely to report various types of childhood abuse than heterosexual youth. However, multivariate analyses indicated that age of first prescribed drug was the most significant factor associated with initiation into misuse of all three categories of prescription drugs.
Conclusions: The correlates of initiation into prescription drug misuse are multidimensional and offer opportunities for further research. Identifying additional factors contributing to initiation into prescription drug misuse is essential towards developing interventions that may reduce future drug use among young adults.
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Bulimic Behaviors and Alcohol Use: Shared Genetic Influences
Jennifer Slane, Alexandra Burt & Kelly Klump
Behavior Genetics, July 2012, Pages 603-613
Abstract:
Bulimic behaviors are frequently associated with alcohol use disorders. However, extant family and twin study findings have been inconsistent with regard to whether these behaviors share etiologic influences. A sample of 292 young adult, female twins was used to examine genetic and environmental factors underlying the association between binge eating and compensatory behaviors (e.g., vomiting) and alcohol use. Binge eating and compensatory behaviors were assessed using the Minnesota Eating Behavior Survey. Alcohol use was measured using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test. Univariate models indicated that the heritability of binge eating, compensatory behaviors, and alcohol use was 41, 28, and 78%, respectively, with the remaining variance due to nonshared environmental effects. Bivariate models indicated that there was a moderate-to-large degree of overlap (genetic correlation = 0.31-0.61) in additive genetic factors between alcohol use and binge eating and compensatory behaviors, and no overlap in environmental effects. Findings suggest that these phenotypes co-aggregate in families and that similar genes or heritable traits may be contributing to their co-occurrence.
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The effect of health shocks on smoking and obesity
Leonie Sundmacher
European Journal of Health Economics, August 2012, Pages 451-460
Aim: To investigate whether negative changes in their own health (i.e. health shocks) or in that of a smoking or obese household member, lead smokers to quit smoking and obese individuals to lose weight.
Methods: The study is informed by economic models (‘rational addiction' and ‘demand for health' models) which offer hypotheses on the relationship between health shocks and health-related behaviour. Each hypothesis was tested applying a discrete-time hazard model with random effects using up to ten waves of the German Socioeconomic Panel (GSOEP) and statistics on cigarette, food and beverage prices provided by the Federal Statistical Office.
Results: Health shocks had a significant positive impact on the probability that smokers quit during the same year in which they experienced the health shock. Health shocks of a smoking household member between year t-2 and t-1 also motivated smoking cessation, although statistical evidence for this was weaker. Health shocks experienced by obese individuals or their household members had, on the other hand, no significant effect on weight loss, as measured by changes in Body Mass Index (BMI).
Conclusion: The results of the study suggest that smokers are aware of the risks associated with tobacco consumption, know about effective strategies to quit smoking, and are willing to quit for health-related reasons. In contrast, there was no evidence for changes in health-related behaviour among obese individuals after a health shock.
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Proactive Motor Control Reduces Monetary Risk Taking in Gambling
Frederick Verbruggen, Rachel Adams & Christopher Chambers
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Less supervision by the executive system after disruption of the right prefrontal cortex leads to increased risk taking in gambling because superficially attractive - but risky - choices are not suppressed. Similarly, people might gamble more in multitask situations than in single-task situations because concurrent executive processes usually interfere with each other. In the study reported here, we used a novel monetary decision-making paradigm to investigate whether multitasking could reduce rather than increase risk taking in gambling. We found that performing a task that induced cautious motor responding reduced gambling in a multitask situation (Experiment 1). We then found that a short period of inhibitory training lessened risk taking in gambling at least 2 hr later (Experiments 2 and 3). Our findings indicate that proactive motor control strongly affects monetary risk taking in gambling. The link between control systems at different cognitive levels might be exploited to develop new methods for rehabilitation of addiction and impulse-control disorders.
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Nina Mulia & Sarah Zemore
Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, July 2012, Pages 570-580
Objective: Experiences of racial/ethnic bias and unfair treatment are risk factors for alcohol problems, and population differences in exposure to these social adversities (i.e., differential exposure) may contribute to alcohol-related disparities. Differential vulnerability is another plausible mechanism underlying health disparities, yet few studies have examined whether populations differ in their vulnerability to the effects of social adversity on psychological stress and the effects of psychological stress on alcohol problems.
Method: Data from the 2005 U.S. National Alcohol Survey (N = 4,080 adult drinkers) were analyzed using structural equation modeling to assess an overall model of pathways linking social adversity, depressive symptoms, heavy drinking, and alcohol dependence. Multiple group analyses were conducted to assess differences in the model's relationships among Blacks versus Whites, Hispanics versus Whites, and the poor (income below the federal poverty line) versus non-poor (income above the poverty line).
Results: The overall model explained 48% of the variance in alcohol dependence and revealed significant pathways between social adversity and alcohol dependence involving depressive symptoms and heavy drinking. The effects of social adversity and depressive symptoms were no different among Blacks and Hispanics compared with Whites. However, the poor (vs. non-poor) showed stronger associations between unfair treatment and depressive symptoms and between depressive symptoms and heavy drinking.
Conclusions: Contrary to some prior studies, these findings suggest that racial disparities in alcohol problems may be more a function of racial/ethnic minorities' greater exposure, rather than vulnerability, to chronic stressors such as social adversity. However, observed differences between the poor and non-poor imply that differential vulnerability contributes to socioeconomic disparities in alcohol problems. Efforts to reduce both differential exposure and vulnerability might help to mitigate these disparities.
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Temporal Associations of Popularity and Alcohol Use Among Middle School Students
Joan Tucker et al.
Journal of Adolescent Health, forthcoming
Purpose: The goal of this study is to better understand the longitudinal cross-lagged associations between popularity, assessed through self-rating and peer nominations, and alcohol use among middle school students.
Methods: The analytical sample comprises 1,835 sixth- to eighth-grade students who were initially recruited from three California middle schools and surveyed in the fall and spring semesters of 2 academic years. Students reported on their background characteristics, past-month alcohol use, and perceived popularity. Additionally, students provided school-based friendship nominations, which were used to calculate peer-nominated popularity. A cross-lagged regression approach within a structural equation modeling framework was used to examine the longitudinal relationship between popularity (self-rated and peer-nominated) and alcohol use.
Results: There was a statistically significant (p = .024) association between peer-nominated popularity and the probability of alcohol consumption at the subsequent survey, but not vice versa. Our results suggest that in a scenario where 8% of students are past-month drinkers, each increase of five friendship nominations is associated with a 30% greater risk of being a current drinker at the next wave. We found no evidence of longitudinal associations between past-month alcohol consumption and self-rated popularity.
Conclusions: Popularity is a risk factor for drinking during the middle school years, with peer-nominated popularity being more predictive of use than self-perceptions of popularity. To inform alcohol prevention efforts for middle school students, additional research is needed to better understand why adolescents with a larger number of school-based friendship ties are more inclined to drink.
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A voxel-based morphometry study comparing problem gamblers, alcohol abusers, and healthy controls
Ruth van Holst et al.
Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 1 July 2012, Pages 142-148
Background: Alcohol use disorders (AUDs) are associated with smaller grey matter volumes in cortical and subcortical brain regions which are related to cognitive impairments often found in these disorders. Similar cognitive impairments have been found in patients suffering from problem gambling behaviour. However, in contrast to AUDs, gambling behaviour does not entail brain exposure to toxic agents. Although there are many clinical, neuropsychological, and neurobiological similarities between PG and substance use disorders it has not yet been established whether pathological gambling, similar to alcohol use disorders, is associated with abnormal regional grey matter volumes.
Methods: With whole-brain voxel-based morphometry we compared a group of 40 treatment seeking problem gamblers, 36 subjects with an alcohol use disorder, and 54 healthy controls to evaluate potential group differences in regional grey matter volumes, corrected for age, IQ, smoking status, and total intracranial volume (TIV).
Results: Significantly smaller grey matter volumes in left superior frontal cortex, left precentral cortex, right insula, right putamen, left thalamus, bilateral superior parietal cortex and right supramarginal cortex were present in subjects with an alcohol use disorder compared to healthy controls and problem gamblers. No significant grey matter volume differences were present between problem gamblers and healthy controls.
Conclusion: In conclusion, we replicated previous findings of smaller grey matter volumes in subjects with an alcohol use disorder and found no significant morphological brain abnormalities in problem gamblers.
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The impact of culture on acceptance of soft drugs across Europe
Liqun Cao & Ruohui Zhao
Journal of Criminal Justice, July-August 2012, Pages 296-305
Purpose: This paper applies Welzel and Inglehart's new human development/modernization theory to explain variation of tolerance in soft drug taking. It hypothesizes that tolerance of illegal drugs is linked to the human development and strength of a general cultural axis of nations: survivalism vs. self-expressionism.
Methods: Data are from the fourth wave of the World Values Surveys and from the United Nations' Human Development Report 2001. Using Hierarchical Generalized Linear Regression (HGLM), this study examines variation of tolerance in soft drugs in 30 European nations with 38,719 respondents.
Results: Results support the hypothesis that residents from nations with higher levels of human development and with higher self-expressionist scores are more tolerant of soft drug use than residents in nations with lower human development levels and lower self-expressionist scores.
Conclusions: Our findings point to the troublesome relationship between cosmopolitan culture characteristic of liberal democracy and soft drug tolerance. As liberal democracy empowers ordinary people with civil and political rights, it also nurtures the growth of human freedom, making it evident in the mass liberty aspiration of self-expressionism and self-management.