Hangovers Do Little to Stop Future Drinking

Countless people have woken up the morning after a night of drinking and swore to themselves that they're never drinking again. But new research suggests that those sentiments are rarely followed through on, and that being hungover from a night of drinking does little to dissuade people from drinking again.

Writing in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, corresponding author Thomas Piasecki, a professor in the department of psychological Sciences at the University of Missouri, and his colleagues report that their study of nearly 400 self-identifying "frequent drinkers" reveled that a hangover was little, if any, motivation to not drink heavily again.

One consideration the researchers studied is so-called "hair-of-the-dog" drinking, wherein the symptoms of a hangover are meant to be alleviated by having an alcoholic drink.

"If hangovers motivate 'hair of the dog' drinking to alleviate hangover symptoms, perhaps they play a direct role in the escalation of problematic drinking," Piasecki said. "On the other hand, if hangovers punish or discourage drinking, why wouldn't we find that the people at highest risk of problem drinking are those who actually experience the fewest hangovers?"

Interestingly, "strong" drinkers who reported to be relatively insensitive to the intoxicating effects of alcohol, reported more hangovers than their "lightweight" peers, the researchers found.

"This is consistent with other research suggesting that being less sensitive to alcohol promotes heavy drinking," Piasecki said. "People who don't experience as much intoxication when drinking may have difficulty learning their limits and therefore may be more prone to drink to hangover-inducing levels."

Study co-author Damaris Rohsenow, a professor of behavioral and social sciences at Brown University School of Public Health, said that it's a well-known fact that the immediate positive or negative effects of a behavior are more powerful than delayed effects, such as hangovers.

"People who drink heavily generally experience pleasurable effects while drinking, and that is what drives the decision to drink heavily again," Rohsenow said. "The pain of hangover is temporary, and may be considered a nuisance rather than an important negative consequence. Some studies show that younger drinkers do not consider hangovers to be a negative experience, and that many drinkers are willing to experience hangovers time after time."

The researchers recruited 386 frequent drinkers in a community (196 males, 190 females) and asked them to carry electronic diaries for 21 days while reporting on drinking behaviors and other experiences.

Altogether, there were 2,276 reported drinking episodes, including 463 that were followed by self-reported hangover the morning after.

"Our main finding is that hangovers appear to have a very modest effect on subsequent drinking," said Piasecki. "On average, the time between drinking episodes was extended by only a few hours after a hangover. We looked to see whether there were particular subgroups of drinkers who might show distinctive patterns like 'hair of the dog' use, but we didn't find clear evidence for that. Participants made a diary entry each morning, and they were asked to rate their likelihood of drinking later the same day. It was striking that ratings made on hangover and non-hangover mornings did not differ. Even when the drinkers were acutely suffering a hangover, it didn't seem to affect their conscious drinking intentions. No doubt this reflects the fact that drinking behavior is determined by a host of factors, like day of the week, opportunity, and social plans."

Piasecki continued:

"Our findings fill in a basic piece of the puzzle concerning hangovers and alcoholism. If hangovers don't strongly discourage or punish drinking, links between current problem drinking and frequent hangover seem less incongruent.

"If hangovers don't generally hasten drinking, we can rule out a direct causal role of hangovers in the acceleration of problem drinking. Instead, the findings encourage us to think about alternate hypotheses linking hangovers and alcoholism, such as the possibility that hangovers are good markers for other risk factors, such as a propensity to lose control over drinking or individual differences in alcohol sensitivity."