The estimated 9 percent of college students who have symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are likely to drink more alcohol than peers without the psychological condition. In turn, heavy alcohol consumption exacerbates their PTSD symptoms over time, prolonging a vicious cycle.
These are the conclusions of the first empirical study to examine the bidirectional influences of the two phenomena, influences that had been theorized but never tested.
The study, "Reciprocal Associations Between PTSD Symptoms and Alcohol Involvement in College: A Three-Year Trait-State-Error Analysis," was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and is published in the most recent edition of the Journal of Abnormal Psychology.
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2014-01-relationship-ptsd-symptoms-college-students.html
The abstract isΒ here.
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