Anxiety and Alcohol (Part 2) (E64)
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Gill discusses anxiety and addiction. She explains how the brain keeps itself in balance, how alcohol affects this balance, and how this causes us to feel relaxed when we drink and then anxious when we don’t. You’ll learn why we get hangxiety when we try to stop drinking, how genetics plays a role, how long it generally takes for the brain to balance itself out after we quit, and more about a drug called Baclofen which is prescribed off label in some countries to treat alcohol addiction.
What to listen to next:
E22: Why You Think Alcohol Helps You Anxiety
E43: Drinking to Cope
Sources
Roh S, Matsushita S, Hara S, Maesato H, Matsui T, Suzuki G, et al. Role of GABRA2 in moderating subjective responses to alcohol. Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2011; 35: 400–7.
Bahi A . Increased anxiety, voluntary alcohol consumption and ethanol-induced place preference in mice following chronic psychosocial stress. Stress 2013; 16: 441–51.
Gilpin N, Karanikas C, Richardson H . Adolescent binge drinking leads to changes in alcohol drinking, anxiety, and amygdalar corticotropin releasing factor cells in adulthood in male rats. PLoS One 2012; 7: e31466.
Liang, J., Olsen, R. Alcohol use disorders and current pharmacological therapies: the role of GABAA receptors. Acta Pharmacol Sin 35, 981–993 (2014).
Rigal L et al. Titrated baclofen for high-risk alcohol consumption: A randomized placebo-controlled trial in outpatients with one-year follow up. Addiction 2019
Cite this episode
Tietz, G. Episode 64: Anxiety and Alcohol (Part 2). Sober Powered. 2021.
