Do Hangovers Influence Our Choice to Drink?
“I am never drinking again!” Head-throbbing, nauseating hangovers — we’ve all been there. But do hangovers have any influence on our drinking?
Hangovers are a drinking-contingent dose-dependent phenomenon — the more alcohol consume, the more likely you are to experience a hangover. It really isn’t rocket science.
A question health psychologists are keen to answer is whether hangover influences our choice to drink. You’d think such unpleasant next-day effects would surely influence us?
Hangovers are a natural punisher for overindulgence. And they are associated with a slight delay in the next time we drink. However, the effect isn’t large.
Research suggests despite repeatedly experiencing hangovers, they do not effectively limit our drinking.
Why not? One suggestion is that hangover onset is too delayed to have a meaningful impact on drinking behaviour. Most of us associate drinking with euphoria and pleasure as that is how we feel when drunk, rather than hungover misery.
Although we pay the price the next day, hangovers don’t create a conditioned response as they set in too late. We do not learn from our mistakes of drinking too much because we don’t get immediate feedback about our bad decisions.
I’m sure this comes as no surprise. You’ve probably vowed to ‘never drink again’, yet find yourself in the pub a few days later and back into a vicious cycle once again.
So, what if hangover symptoms had a quicker onset? Some do, as there are mutations in the way alcohol is metabolised.
Alcohol is metabolised with the help of two enzymes. The first enzyme ADH breaks down alcohol into acetaldehyde which is highly toxic. Most of us break this down further very quickly, so we do not experience unpleasant effects.
However, differences exist in the speed in which we metabolise alcohol. The mutation responsible for slowing the break down of acetaldehyde makes it build up in the body, leading to very unpleasant effects such as facial flushing and nausea.
Interestingly, this is a protective factor for alcoholism — having a significant impact on the choice to drink. This mutation is prevalent in Asian populations that also have a much lower rate of alcohol use disorder. Coincidence? Perhaps not.
This slowed metabolism of alcohol is believed to resemble a hangover. So, an expedited form leads people to drink less. In fact, this is the way Antabuse works to manage alcoholism.
So, variations in the way alcohol is broken down may contribute to risk of problematic drinking.
What about individuals who do not experience hangover? Does this impact drinking behaviour?
There has been a lot of debate as to whether hangover immunity exists as findings are sparse and inconsistent.
Individuals who lack an inhibitory mechanism to drink, may be at risk for continual engagement in harmful drinking. If you don’t experience a hangover, why not drink all the time…right??
This would suggest that being immune plays a role in drinking behaviour.
There is also the opposite argument, individuals experiencing severe hangovers may actually drink more to relieve the symptoms — hair of the dog. In theory this works as you feed your alcohol withdrawal. Of course, the hangover comes eventually.
Though, not much is known about these individuals. It is possible that those getting the greatest satisfaction and relief from alcohol, are the ones that experience the worst hangovers. This may lead them to drink more. We just do not have the answers, yet.
Although studies find around 25% of individuals are hangover immune, it is debated whether this immunity exists. Those claiming immunity in studies often reach low blood alcohol concentration levels, suggesting perhaps they just didn’t drink enough!
Determining whether hangover influences our drinking behaviour is heavily limited by the way this research is conducted. It is indeed a phenomenon that is difficult to study.
There is still a lot we do not know within hangover research, particularly around immunity. Generally though, hangover has little influence on how much we drink, as of course I am never drinking again, usually does not hold up for very long.
