Binge Drinking and Alcohol Misuse Among College Students and Young Adults

Rachel P. Winograd, MA, is a graduate student in clinical psychology at the University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, where she studies the acute effects of alcohol intoxication on behavior and emotion. She received a National Research Service Award from the National Institutes of Health to conduct her dissertation work investigating "drunk personality" and geospatial characteristics of college students' recent drinking episodes. She is part of a program development group creating an evidence-based intervention for heavy drinking college students and has experience working with a range of individuals experiencing alcohol and other substancerelated problems. She is a member of the Research Society on Alcoholism and the American Psychological Association. Kenneth J. Sher, PhD, is Curators' Distinguished Professor of Psychological Sciences at the University of Missouri, Columbia, MO. He has published extensively on the etiology and course of substance use disorders (particularly alcohol use disorders) in later adolescence and young adulthood, and is the principal investigator on two large longitudinal studies following student drinkers during their college years and beyond. His research is funded by the National Institutes of Health, and he has received over 20 awards for his teaching, mentorship, and research activities including the Research Society on Alcoholism's Young Investigator Award, Distinguished Researcher Award, and G. Alan Marlatt Mentoring Award, and the American Psychological Association's Division on Addiction's Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award.

1 Description of Young-Adult Alcohol Misuse 1.1 Terminology and Definitions 1.1.1 Consumption 1.1.2 Alcohol Problems 1.1.3 Alcohol Dependence and Alcohol-Related Disorders 1.1.4 Diagnosis 1.2 Epidemiology and Course 1.2.1 Greek Organizations and Sexual Assaults on College Campuses 1.3 Differential Diagnosis and Comorbidities 1.3.1 Comorbidities 1.4 Diagnostic Procedures and Documentation 2 Theories and Models of Alcohol Misuse 2.1 Affect Regulation 2.2 Behavioral Undercontrol 2.3 Pharmacological Vulnerability 3 Assessment and Treatment Indications 3.1 General Issues 3.1.1 Self-Report Measures 3.1.2 Assessment Types and Options 3.1.3 Alcohol-Related Consequences Measures 3.2 Diagnosing an Alcohol Use Disorder 3.3 Other Assessment Domains 3.4 Expectancies 3.5 Drinking Motives 3.6 Readiness to Change 3.7 Influential Factors for Treatment 3.7.1 Current and Past Mental and Physical Health Problems 3.7.2 Treatment History 3.7.3 Identifying the Appropriate Treatment4 Treatment 4.1 Methods of Treatment 4.1.1 Evidence-Based and Empirically Supported Treatment 4.1.2 Overview of Existing Treatment Components 4.2 Mechanisms of Action and Efficacy of Individual Approaches 4.2.1 Intervention Approach 4.2.2 Intervention Content 4.2.3 Intervention Formats 4.2.4 Intervention Style 4.3 Specific Implementation, Variation, and Combination of Methods 4.3.1 Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students 4.3.2 Other Intervention Avenues 4.4 Course of Young-Adult Alcohol Misuse 4.5 Emerging Treatments 4.6 Problems Carrying Out Treatment 4.6.1 Preintervention Obstacles 4.6.2 In-Session Obstacles 4.6.3 Postintervention Obstacles 4.7 Multicultural Issues 4.8 Summary 5 Further Reading 6 References 7 Appendix: Tools and Resources