Quick 'Mindfulness' Fix May Lower Alcohol Drinking

 

A small experiment shows that mindfulness training exercises may help people who drink large amounts of alcohol.

Mindfulness is a method of quietly, but fully¹, experiencing what is happening in the present, both in and around you.

The mindfulness study involved 68 heavy drinkers in the United Kingdom. The subjects were not alcoholics³, but they did have more alcohol to drink than most people.

Some of the subjects received training in relaxation⁴ methods. The other subjects took part in an 11-minute training program in mindfulness exercises. The program was designed to help them recognize their desire for a drink without acting⁵ on it.

Over the next week, the group that received mindfulness training drank much less than they had during the week before the study started. But the subjects in the relaxation group did not drink much less.

Damla Irez is with University College London. She says the study did not involve ‘treating’ people who needed help cutting down their alcohol use.

“But it did suggest that people who drink too much, but don’t have an alcohol use disorder⁶, might be able to reduce their consumption, at least in the short term, by practicing mindfulness,” Irez said by email. The Reuters news agency reported her comments.

A report on the study was published in The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology.

During the mindfulness training, people were told to pay attention to their desire to drink instead of ignoring this feeling. They were told that, by noticing bodily sensations, they could accept them as temporary events without needing to act on them.

The other group – those in relaxation training – was told that softening⁷ the muscles, calming and unwinding the mind and releasing tension in the body could reduce the desire to drink.

After receiving one of these trainings, all 68 people were asked to use the techniques they learned for one week.

Right after training, both groups reported a reduced desire for a drink although the reduction was greater in the relaxation group.

However, people in the mindfulness group drank 9.3 fewer units of alcohol in the week after the training than they did in the week before the study began. This is about equal to three pints⁸ of beer – or about 13,000 milliliters.

In the relaxation group, people consumed just 3 fewer units of alcohol. This difference was too small to rule out the possibility that the cause was chance.

One limitation of the study was the small number of subjects. Another limitation was that the researchers depended on the subjects to remember and report how much alcohol they drank. Researchers also depended on them to be honest about whether they had been diagnosed with alcohol use disorder. In addition, the study was too brief to show how much training people might require to see long-term changes to their drinking behavior.

William Marchand is a psychiatry⁹ professor at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. He wasn't involved in the British study. But he said it was new and surprising that such a short training period would have an effect on behavior.

In an email to Reuters, Marchard said he would have thought much more training would be needed to change behavior. “What we don’t know,” he said, “is whether there will be a lasting¹⁰ impact on drinking behavior.”

Still, the first step in targeting addictive¹¹ behaviors is to notice them, said Stefan Hofmann, a psychology¹² researcher at Boston University in Massachusetts. Hofmann told Reuters in an email that humans usually develop habits and link behaviors to situational signals.

For example, for drinkers, this might mean that being around certain people or in places, such as a bar, will make drinking more probable, he said.

Ordering another drink can become automatic in these situations, but becoming watchful¹³ of signs that lead to more drinking can help change how people react to these signs.

“This is why mindfulness can be a very powerful strategy,” Hofmann said. He said it stops automatic behavior by making people more thoughtful.

I’m Alice Bryant. And I'm Bryan Lynn.

Words in This Story

heavy drinker – n. a person who drinks a large amount of alcohol

alcoholic² – n. a person who often drinks too much alcohol and is unable to live a normal and healthy life

relaxation – n. something that you do to stop feeling nervous or worried

consumption – n. the act of eating or drinking something

diagnose – v. to recognize a disease or illness by examining someone

impact – n. a change that results when something is done or happens

addictive – adj. causing a strong and harmful need to regularly have or do something

habit – n. something that a person does often in a regular and repeated way

automatic – adj. involuntary; done as if by a machine

1 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

2 alcoholic   

adj.（含）酒精的，由酒精引起的；n.酗酒者

参考例句：

• The alcoholic strength of brandy far exceeds that of wine.白兰地的酒精浓度远远超过葡萄酒。
• Alcoholic drinks act as a poison to a child.酒精饮料对小孩犹如毒药。

3 Alcoholics   

n.嗜酒者，酒鬼( alcoholic的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Many alcoholics go on drinking sprees that continue for days at a time. 许多酒鬼一次要狂饮好几天。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Do you have a copy of the Alcoholics Anonymous book? 你手上有戒酒匿名会的书吗？ 来自互联网

4 relaxation   

n.松弛，放松；休息；消遣；娱乐

参考例句：

• The minister has consistently opposed any relaxation in the law.部长一向反对法律上的任何放宽。
• She listens to classical music for relaxation.她听古典音乐放松。

5 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

6 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。

7 softening   

变软，软化

参考例句：

• Her eyes, softening, caressed his face. 她的眼光变得很温柔了。它们不住地爱抚他的脸。 来自汉英文学 - 家（1-26） - 家（1-26）
• He might think my brain was softening or something of the kind. 他也许会觉得我婆婆妈妈的，已经成了个软心肠的人了。

8 pints   

n.品脱( pint的名词复数 )；一品脱啤酒

参考例句：

• I drew off three pints of beer from the barrel. 我从酒桶里抽出三品脱啤酒。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Two pints today, please. 今天请来两品脱。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 psychiatry   

n.精神病学，精神病疗法

参考例句：

• The study appeared in the Amercian science Journal of Psychiatry.这个研究发表在美国精神病学的杂志上。
• A physician is someone who specializes in psychiatry.精神病专家是专门从事精神病治疗的人。

10 lasting   

adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持

参考例句：

• The lasting war debased the value of the dollar.持久的战争使美元贬值。
• We hope for a lasting settlement of all these troubles.我们希望这些纠纷能获得永久的解决。

11 addictive   

adj.(吸毒等)使成瘾的，成为习惯的

参考例句：

• The problem with video game is that they're addictive.电子游戏机的问题在于它们会使人上瘾。
• Cigarettes are highly addictive.香烟很容易使人上瘾。

12 psychology   

n.心理，心理学，心理状态

参考例句：

• She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
• He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。

13 watchful   

adj.注意的，警惕的

参考例句：

• The children played under the watchful eye of their father.孩子们在父亲的小心照看下玩耍。
• It is important that health organizations remain watchful.卫生组织保持警惕是极为重要的。