Roland Griffiths, professor in the departments of psychiatry and neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, is the lead author of a study on caffeinated energy drinks.
How much research has been done about the effects of combining alcohol and energy drinks?
There has been work done on the combined use of alcohol and caffeine, and we reviewed some of that work. There are number of different studies, but certainly a lot more could be done.
The most interesting piece and the reason it should be a concern is that when caffeine is added to alcohol, it decreases the ability for someone to recognize how intoxicated they are. They underestimate the amount of intoxication, but it doesn’t alter their drunkenness.
They are at risk for not only consuming more alcohol than they would otherwise, but also are at risk for alcohol-related accidents.
And it has just become horrendously popular.
Mostly among college students?
In one study, almost 30 percent of college students reported mixing alcohol and energy drinks in the last month. About 50 percent used more than three energy drinks per occasion. So it has been really popular, and if you go into most bars near college campuses, you find the Red Bull cooler.
And that isn’t regulated?
[The Canadian health department] includes a warning label on Red Bull and related drinks saying don’t mix with alcohol. In the U.S., such warning labels don’t exist.
What about alcoholic energy drinks?
There was settlement recently this year in which 11 states’ attorneys general had action against Anheuser-Busch, and they agreed to stop the sale of caffeinated alcoholic beverages. There is some — at least with big companies — some sensitivity to that and they were voluntarily pulled.
They are more aware of it, but that’s not to say it’s not a problem and there won’t be more products of that sort. But we have this whole phenomenon of mixing alcohol with energy drinks, and it’s leading to problems.
