Menstrual cycle influences on regulatory control over drinking in young women

描述（由申请人提供）：酒精使用是一个重大的公共卫生问题，每年给社会造成近2250亿美元的损失（Bouchery et al., 2011）。与适度饮酒的男性相比，适度饮酒的女性（每周饮酒少于7杯，或每天饮酒3杯）患健康相关并发症（如肝病）的风险更高（NIAAA， 2011年）。然而，鉴于酒精文献中对男性的历史偏见，缺乏调查女性饮酒的病因因素的研究（SAMSHA, 2011）。因此，本研究的重点是影响女性饮酒的脆弱性和保护性因素。在月经周期自由的女性中，每个月都有与月经周期相关的荷尔蒙变化。特别是月经周期的黄体期（经前期）的特点是压力反应性增加（Lustyk et al., 2010）。鉴于压力和饮酒之间的复杂关系（Sinha, 2008），人们会认为黄体期与女性饮酒的脆弱性增加有关。然而，迄今为止，关于循环阶段和酒精使用的小范围研究一直是混合的-可能是由于方法问题（Douglas et al., 2013）。因此，本研究旨在严格和系统地调查酒精使用的周期阶段变化。其他调节系统和性格因素也可能影响女性饮酒。似乎大多数人类决策是由两种监管系统控制的，这两种系统驱使人们选择更小、更直接的奖励（冲动系统）或更大、更延迟的奖励（执行控制；Bechara, 2005）。因此，女性在黄体期使用酒精来应对压力和/或消极情绪的倾向可能是由冲动系统调节的，而女性更有效地应对压力的能力可能是由执行控制来管理的。在决定一个女人是否会为了应对而喝酒时，一个重要的性格因素是正念，或者是在当下时刻不加评判地集中注意力的能力。正念与较低的酒精使用有关（Fernandez et al., 2010），并且理论上可以增强执行控制（Brewer et al., 2010）并减少冲动系统（Peters et al., 2011）。因此，具有更高的倾向正念的女性可能有更多的执行控制功能，这有助于在黄体期更健康地应对。因此，本研究采用混合客观和自我报告的方法测量冲动系统（如延迟折扣）、执行控制（如心脏迷走神经控制）和正念，以检验调节系统和性格因素对循环阶段和酒精使用之间关系的影响。拟议的研究将为未被充分研究的妇女和酒精使用的病因因素领域提供有价值的见解，并为有前途的年轻研究人员提供培训。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Alcohol use is of great public health concern, costing society nearly $225 billion a year (Bouchery et al., 2011). Women who drink moderately (less than 7 drinks a week, or 3 drinks a day) are at an increased risk for health related complications (e.g., liver disease) as compared to men who drink moderately (NIAAA, 2011). Yet, given the historical bias towards men in the alcohol literature, there is a dearth of research investigating the etiological factors that take part in alcohol use in women (SAMSHA, 2011). Thus, the present study focuses on vulnerability and protective factors that influence alcohol use in women. In freely-cycling women, every month is marked by hormonal variation associated with the menstrual cycle. In particular the luteal phase (pre- menstrual period) of the menstrual cycle is characterized by increased stress reactivity (Lustyk et al., 2010). Given the intricate relationship between stress and alcohol use (Sinha, 2008), one would expect that the luteal phase be associated with increased vulnerability for alcohol use in women. However, the small extent of research on cycle phase and alcohol use to date has been mixed- likely due to methodological issues (Douglas et al., 2013). Thus the present study aims to rigorously and systematically investigate cycle phase variation in alcohol use. Other regulatory systems and dispositional factors may also influence alcohol use in women. It appears that most human decision making is governed by two regulatory systems that drives the choice for smaller, more immediate rewards (impulsive system) or larger, more delayed rewards (executive control; Bechara, 2005). Thus, a woman's proclivity to use alcohol to cope with stress and/or negative emotionality during the luteal phase may be regulated by impulsive systems, where a woman's ability to cope with stress more effectively may be managed by executive control. One dispositional factor that is important to consider in determining whether a woman will drink to cope is mindfulness, or the ability to pay attention in the present moment, non-judgmentally. Mindfulness is associated with lower alcohol use (Fernandez et al., 2010) and is theorized to augment executive control (Brewer et al., 2010) and diminish impulsive systems (Peters et al., 2011). So, women with higher dispositional mindfulness may have more access to executive control function that facilitates healthier coping during the luteal phase. Therefore, the present study uses mixed objective and self-reported methodological measures of impulsive systems (e.g., delay discounting), executive control (e.g., cardiac vagal control), and mindfulness to examine the influence of regulatory systems and dispositional factors on the relation between cycle phase and alcohol use. The proposed study will provide valuable insight into the understudied arena of etiological factors involved in women and alcohol use and provide training to an up-and-coming young researcher.