Drinking Styles

We were interested in including a range of heavier recent drinking styles. We recruited participants averaging more than 14 European standard drinks (12 gm ethanol) per week for men; more than 10 for women. We operationalized the NIAAA definition of binge drinking, consistent with an episode in which women/men consumed at least 4/5 drinks (https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohol-health/overview-alcohol-consumption/moderate-binge-drinking). Extreme binges comprised 10 or more drinks per occasion for men and 8 or more for women. We defined regular, heavy drinking as a drinking pattern with less than 3 days between drinking days and more than 2.0 gm ethanol per liter total body water (about 5 standard drinks per drinking day for the average women and 7 per drinking day for the average man in this study).