No significant gender differences in driving-related skills following alcohol mixed with energy drinks during an experimental binge-drinking episode

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• dc.contributor.author Hladun, Olga
• dc.contributor.author Papaseit Fontanet, Esther
• dc.contributor.author Poyatos, Lourdes
• dc.contributor.author Martín, Soraya
• dc.contributor.author Pérez-Acevedo, Ana Pilar
• dc.contributor.author Barriocanal, Ana Maria
• dc.contributor.author Bustos-Cardona, Tatiana
• dc.contributor.author Malumbres, Susana
• dc.contributor.author Torre Fornell, Rafael de la
• dc.contributor.author Langohr, Klaus
• dc.contributor.author Farré Albaladejo, Magí
• dc.contributor.author Pérez Mañá, Clara
• dc.date.accessioned 2025-07-25T06:19:31Z
• dc.date.available 2025-07-25T06:19:31Z
• dc.date.issued 2025
• dc.description.abstract Introduction: Consumption of alcohol mixed with energy drinks (AmEDs) is trendy among young people. It has been related to risk-taking behaviors like binge drinking and driving under the influence of alcohol. Previous data suggest that women are more sensitive to alcohol-induced impairment. The aim of the study was to assess whether women experience greater acute effects (on driving-related skills and subjective and physiological responses) after the controlled administration of alcohol and energy drinks in an experimental binge-drinking episode. Methods: A randomized, crossover, double-blind clinical trial was conducted with 28 healthy volunteers (14 men and 14 women) across four treatment conditions, namely, alcohol + energy drink (A/ED), alcohol + placebo of ED (A), placebo of alcohol + ED (ED), and both placebos (P). Men received 70 g of alcohol and women received 55 g, combined with 750 mL and 589 mL of ED, respectively; these were administered over 80 min, mimicking a binge-drinking episode. Driving-related skills (measured by a tracking test and the psychomotor vigilance task), subjective effects (using the visual analog scales (VASs, Biphasic Alcohol Effects Scale (BAES), and Addiction Research Center Inventory (ARCI)), vital signs, and alcohol and caffeine concentrations were measured over an 8-h period. Results: Peak alcohol concentrations in breath air were 0.46 mg/L in both genders, despite the alcohol dose being 21% lower in women. Similar peak blood caffeine concentrations were observed in men and women (4,500 ng/mL vs. 4,635 ng/mL with A/ED, higher than those with ED). Women reported greater drunkenness (effect size: 45 mm; 95% CI: 5-85 mm) and more alcohol-induced sedation than men (ARCI sedative subscale effect size: 12; 95% CI: 2-22), but no significant gender differences were found in driving-related skills. AmEDs slightly reduced alcohol's effects on most subjective and psychomotor outcomes, but ED did not entirely offset alcohol's effects, and no interaction between the two beverages was found for either gender. Conclusion: After a binge-drinking episode, women reported greater drunkenness and more sedation than men. Our results support that women are more sensitive to several subjective effects of alcohol, but further studies should be conducted to better elucidate gender differences in the effects of AmEDs on driving performance. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04616859.
• dc.description.sponsorship The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research and/or publication of this article. This study was supported in part by grants from the Ministerio de Sanidad (Plan Nacional sobre drogas 2018I037, 2022I045, and 2024I013), the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Fondo de Investigación en Salud-Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (PI20/00879, Plataformas de Soporte para la Investigación Clínica PT20/00018), and Redes de Investigación Cooperativa Orientadas a Resultados en Salud (RICORS)-Red de Investigación en Atención Primaria de Adicciones (RIAPAd) under grant number RD21/0009/0004 and RD24/0003/0019 funded by Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), as well as SGR00945 (Generalitat de Catalunya; Spain). Additionally, PID 2019-104830RB-100/DOI (AEI) 10.13039/501100011033 (Ministerio de Ciencia e Investigación; Spain) and SGR 2021/01,421 (Generalitat de Catalunya; Spain) supported the statistical analysis.
• dc.format.mimetype application/pdf
• dc.identifier.citation Hladun O, Papaseit E, Poyatos L, Martín S, Pérez-Acevedo AP, Barriocanal AM, et al. No significant gender differences in driving-related skills following alcohol mixed with energy drinks during an experimental binge-drinking episode. Front Pharmacol. 2025 May 23;16:1581229. DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1581229
• dc.identifier.doi http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2025.1581229
• dc.identifier.issn 1663-9812
• dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/10230/71000
• dc.language.iso eng
• dc.publisher Frontiers
• dc.relation.ispartof Front Pharmacol. 2025 May 23;16:1581229
• dc.relation.projectID info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/2PE/PID2019-104830RB-100
• dc.rights © 2025 Hladun, Papaseit, Poyatos, Martín, Pérez-Acevedo, Barriocanal, Bustos-Cardona, Malumbres, De La Torre, Langohr, Farré and Pérez-Mañá. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• dc.rights.accessRights info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
• dc.rights.uri http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• dc.subject.keyword Alcohol
• dc.subject.keyword Binge drinking
• dc.subject.keyword Driving-related skills
• dc.subject.keyword Energy drinks
• dc.subject.keyword Gender difference
• dc.subject.keyword Male and female participants
• dc.subject.keyword Pharmacokinetics
• dc.title No significant gender differences in driving-related skills following alcohol mixed with energy drinks during an experimental binge-drinking episode
• dc.type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
• dc.type.version info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion