Moderate drinking before trauma leads to more flashbacks

People who have drunk a moderate amount of alcohol before a traumatic event report more flashbacks than those who have had no alcohol, according to new UCL research. The results may give new insight into why some individuals develop post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after a traumatic event and others do not. Published online today in the journal Biological Psychiatry , researchers also found that those who drank a large amount of alcohol before a traumatic event did not report an increase in the number of flashbacks. ?Many people who experience a personally traumatic event such as rape or a road traffic accident have consumed alcohol beforehand. For the first time, this research gives us an idea of how being under the influence of alcohol might contribute to our wellbeing later on,? said James Bisby, from UCL Clinical, Educational & Health Psychology, who led the research. Scientists believe that the findings can be attributed to how alcohol affects two types of memory: one that is egocentric, providing a visual 'snapshot' of an event, and another that stores a mental representation of the context of the event, which is independent of the person's viewpoint. The authors of the study suggest that contextual memory is reduced in those who experience high levels of stress and this reduction may be exaggerated in those who have had a couple of glasses of wine (around three units).