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Your Menstrual Cycle May Be Influencing Your Drinking Habits

Grants

<aside> 🚧 We are involved in TWO NIH-funded R01 Grants on this topic— one with PIs Michelle Martel and Mark Fillmore at the University of Kentucky and one with PI Raina Pang at USC. Both focus on alcohol use across the menstrual cycle!

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Papers

Daily Drinking and Heavy (4+) Drinking is highest around ovulation and menses onset, accounted for by elevated follicular phase estradiol

• Martel, M., Eisenlohr-Moul, T., & Roberts, B. (2017). Interactive effects of ovarian steroid hormones on alcohol use and binge drinking across the menstrual cycle. *Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 126*(8), 1104-1113.
  • Strong peaks of alcohol use at alcohol use at ovulation and menses.
  • Alcohol use correlates within-person with E2 increases across the prior 2 days
  • Effects strongest and sometimes only present on weekend days
  • Healthy college students, small sample

• Barone, J., Ross, J., Nagpal, A.*, Berenz, E., Pang, R., & Eisenlohr-Moul, T. A. (2023). Alcohol Use and Motives for Drinking Across the Menstrual Cycle in a Psychiatric Outpatient Sample. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.
  • Much larger sample recruited for transdiagnostic suicidality
  • Replicated peaks in heavy alcohol use at ovulation and menses. Larger peak at menses.
  • Replicated weekend moderation of effects
  • Some evidence for differential drinking motives (e.g., social, coping) at different points in the cycle.

In social drinkers, the expected effects of alcohol (vs. PBO) in reducing inhibitory control becomes stronger from the early to the late follicular phase, in concert with the normative rise in estradiol.

• Griffith, A. K., Martel, M. M., Eisenlohr-Moul, T.A., & Fillmore, M. T. (2022). Heightened sensitivity to the disinhibiting effect of alcohol in women during the late follicular phase of the menstrual cycle. Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology.