Weekly Energy Drink Use Is Positively Associated with Delay Discounting and Risk Behavior in a Nationwide Sample of Young Adults

Background:

Energy drink use is associated with increased risk behavior among adolescents and college students. This study examined this relationship in a nationwide sample of young adults and also examined relations between energy drink use and delay discounting.

Methods:

Participants were 874 U.S. adults 18-28 years of age with past 30-day consumption of caffeine and alcohol. Participants completed an online survey of energy drink use, drug use, sexual activity, alcohol misuse (alcohol use disorders identification test [AUDIT]), sensation seeking (four-item Brief Sensation Seeking Scale [BSSS-4]), and delay discounting of monetary rewards and condom use.

Results:

Over one-third of participants (n = 303) reported consuming energy drinks at least once per week. Weekly energy drink users were more likely than less-than-weekly energy drink users to report a recent history of risk behaviors, including cigarette smoking (56% vs. 28%), illicit stimulant use (22% vs. 6%), and unprotected sex (63% vs. 45%). Covariate-adjusted analyses found that weekly energy drink users did not have significantly higher BSSS-4 scores (3.5 vs. 3.1), but they had higher mean AUDIT scores (8.0 vs. 4.8), and they more steeply discounted delayed monetary rewards. Although weekly energy drink users did not show steeper discounting of delayed condom use, they showed a lower likelihood of using a condom when one was immediately available.

Conclusions:

This study extends findings that energy drink use is associated with risk behavior, and it is the first study to show that energy drink use is associated with monetary delay discounting.

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By:  Meredith SE1, Sweeney MM2, Johnson PS2, Johnson MW2, Griffiths RR3.

• 1Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland.; Calhoun Cardiology Center, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Farmington, Connecticut.
• 2Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine , Baltimore, Maryland.
• 3Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland.; Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland. 
• J Caffeine Res. 2016 Mar 1;6(1):10-19.

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Application of a Brief Measure of Delay Discounting to Examine the Relationship Between Delay Discounting and the Initiation of Substance Use among Adolescents

BACKGROUND:

Higher rate of Delay Discounting (DD) is associated with increased risk for the initiation and development of substance use disorders in adolescents.

OBJECTIVES:

This study aimed to provide a preliminary assessment of the validity of a brief self-report measure of DD by examining discounting rates across 3 periods of increasing delay and subsequently examining the extent to which overall DD scores are associated with having initiated tobacco, alcohol and cannabis use.

METHODS:

Data were collected in the 2012 fall cycle of the British Columbia Adolescent Substance Use Survey. The sample consisted of 1,143 adolescents (61% female) in grades 10 and 11. A brief self-report measure of DD was developed to assess the tendency of adolescents to discount a delayed monetary reward of $100 over a period of 1-year, 1-month, and 1-week. The area under the curve was calculated for each participant's DD responses and coded into quartiles.

RESULTS:

The amount of discounting increased as reward delay increased from 1-week to 1-month to 1-year. Compared to participants in the lowest DD quartile, being in the second, third, or fourth quartile was associated with significantly greater odds of having initiated tobacco use, binge drinking, and cannabis use after controlling for sex, age, maternal education, and ethnicity.

CONCLUSIONS:

These results provide preliminary support for the validity of the brief measure of DD presented in this study and support the emerging body of evidence suggesting that DD is an important indicator of increased risk for the initiation of substance use among adolescents.

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By:  Richardson CG1, Edalati H2.

• 1 School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia , Vancouver , Canada.
• 2 Department of Psychiatry , University of British Columbia , Vancouver , Canada.
• Subst Use Misuse. 2016 Mar 4:1-5.

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Heroin Delay Discounting: Modulation by Pharmacological State, Drug-Use Impulsivity & Intelligence

Delay discounting (DD) refers to how rapidly an individual devalues goods based on delays to receipt. DD usually is considered a trait variable but can be state-dependent; yet few studies have assessed commodity valuation at short, naturalistically relevant time intervals that might enable state-dependent analysis. 

This study aimed to determine whether drug-use impulsivity and intelligence influence heroin DD at short (ecologically relevant) delays during two pharmacological states (heroin satiation and withdrawal). Out-of-treatment, intensive heroin users (n=170; 53.5% African-American; 66.7% male) provided complete DD data during imagined heroin satiation and withdrawal. Delays were 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, 72, and 96 hours; maximum delayed heroin amount was thirty $10 bags. Indifference points were used to calculate area under the curve (AUC). 

We also assessed drug-use impulsivity (subscales from the Impulsive Relapse Questionnaire, IRQ) and estimated intelligence (Shipley IQ) as predictors of DD. Heroin discounting was greater (smaller AUC) during withdrawal than satiation. In regression analyses, lower intelligence and IRQ Capacity for Delay as well as higher IRQ Speed (to return to drug use) predicted greater heroin discounting in the satiation condition. Lower intelligence and higher IRQ Speed predicted greater discounting in the withdrawal condition. Sex, race, substance use variables, and other IRQ subscales were not significantly related to the withdrawal or satiation DD behavior. 

In summary, heroin discounting was temporally rapid, pharmacological state-dependent, and predicted by drug-use impulsivity and estimated intelligence. These findings highlight a novel and sensitive measure of acute DD that is easy to administer.

Below:  Average value of heroin (y-axis) is plotted at each temporal delay (x-axis), separately by pharmacological-state condition. Standard errors of the mean are depicted.

Full article at:  http://goo.gl/b89XWx

By:  Jonathan J.K. Stoltman, M.A.,a Eric A. Woodcock, B.S.,a Jamey J. Lister, Ph.D.,a Leslie H. Lundahl, Ph.D.,a and Mark K. Greenwald, Ph.D.a,b,*

^aDepartment of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, School of Medicine, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48201, USA

^bDepartment of Pharmacy Practice, Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48201, USA

^*Corresponding author at: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, Tolan Park Medical Building, Suite 2A, 3901 Chrysler Service Drive, Detroit, MI 48201, USA. Tel.: +1 313 993 3965; fax: +1 313 993 1372. Email: ude.enyaw.dem@neergm

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