Ch. 6: Energy Drinks and Alcohol

In this chapter we are going to explore an issue that overlaps with our Module 8 topic: alcohol. If you stop to think about it, you might wonder how the stimulants topic overlaps with the alcohol topic when alcohol is a central nervous system (CNS) depressant. As you learned in chapter 1, it is not uncommon for individuals to try modifying the effects of one substance by using another (antagonist) substance—offsetting the effects of stimulants with depressants, for example. We are looking directly at alcohol and stimulants here because of the relatively common practice among young people who misuse alcohol to mix alcoholic beverages with energy drinks. The article you will review at this point is Roemer, A., & Stockwell, R. (2017). Alcohol mixed with energy drinks and risk of injury: A systematic review. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 78(2), 175-183. The important segments of this article for the purposes of our course are the introduction, results, and discussion. The methodology of a systematic review is relevant to coursework about evidence and evidence-informed practice.

In this article you will read about:

• increased risk of injury following use of alcohol mixed with energy drinks (AmED)
• why increased risk of mixing these substances might occur

Click here for a link to our Carmen course where you can locate the assigned pdf file(s) for this chapter. You will need to be logged into our Carmen course, select Module 10, and proceed to the Coursework area. Under the Readings heading you will find a box with links to the readings for relevant coursebook chapters. Don’t forget to return here in your coursebook to complete the remaining chapters and interactive activities.

What is the major conclusion to draw from the article’s review?