Intoxication and exposure to stress: effects of temporal patterning

In this study we explored the temporal patterning of intoxication and exposure to a stress-producing situation on alcohol's effects on stress. Forty male social drinkers received either a 0.7 g/kg dose of alcohol or a placebo. When exposure to a social stressor preceded intoxication, a significant alcohol-induced increase in heart-rate reactivity was found. When intoxication preceded exposure to the stressor, conventional analysis of the data indicated a stress-dampening effect on alcohol on heart rate. No differences were obtained from self-reports of anxiety in either pattern. The findings are explained in terms of attentional and cognitive-encoding processes.