Citation

Wakabayashi KT, Greeman EA, Barrett ST, Bevins RA. ACS Chem. Neurosci. 2021; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, American Chemical Society)

DOI

10.1021/acschemneuro.1c00526

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

While sugar consumption and alcohol drinking have traditionally been studied by different basic science fields, most commercially available flavored alcoholic beverages are sweetened with some kind of sugar. The prevailing view is that these sugars potentiate drinking by making the alcohol taste better, particularly for adolescents, overlooking that some central nervous system circuits implicated in alcohol drinking are also sensitive to brain penetrant sugars like glucose. In this Viewpoint, we highlight the need for basic researchers to carefully consider how the sugars mixed with alcoholic beverages may impact the neurochemical and biological mechanisms influencing alcohol drinking and the development of alcohol use disorder.

Language: en

Keywords

alcohol use disorder; alcohol drinking; brain penetrant sugars; central nervous system; flavored alcoholic beverages; Sugar consumption