Actors trying to depict a drunken individual will often stagger and stumble around and slur their speech in order to communicate intoxication. It is universally recognized as drunken behavior, but only recently have the “sloppy drunk” behaviors been explained as immune system-induced responses to alcohol intake.

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Many people have long believed that a simple cocktail can help them relax, but the link between alcohol and stress is really a double-edged sword. Acute stress is believed to hasten alcoholic drinking. However, the ways in which severe stress can actually increase the consumption of alcohol are not yet clear.

A recent report on Doctor NDTV suggests that alcohol can dampen the negative emotional or physical effects of stress. The research involved 25 healthy males who were asked to perform a public speaking assignment that was known to increase stress and to complete a non-stressful assignment to compare it against.

After completion, the first male study group received alcohol administered intravenously, equivalent to two normal drinks and a placebo, while the other group received them in the opposite order, with the placebo first. Both groups were monitored to test their anxiety levels.

The results showed a multifaceted interaction between stress and alcohol, meaning it lowered the hormonal reaction to stress but prolonged the negative experience of the situation that was skewed while the stress lowered the enjoyable aspects of the alcohol. The conclusion: Using alcohol to manage your stress may in fact make matters worse.

The study further showed that stress may change the way we feel when drinking alcohol and cause us to drink more. Drinking more to relieve stress or tension may ultimately make you feel worse and prolong your stress.

Our stress response can actually benefit us because it helps us react to unpleasant events. If we alter the way our body handles stress, we may in turn be increasing the chances of later developing a stress-induced disease that possibly leads to alcohol addiction. Using alcohol to cope with stress may, in fact, only add to your problems and extend your recovery period from the initial stressor.

Diagnosing a mental disorder is often a complicated process, with a long list of criteria often presenting very differently in each individual. Much of the information gathered to determine whether a diagnosis is appropriate is gathered using reports from the individual being diagnosed, and some of the information may not be reliable.

When compared with other psychiatric disorders, the reliability of the diagnostic tools set forth by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – Fourth Edition is relatively stable. When interviewing individuals from the general public, however, their estimates of past experience or lifetime history of psychiatric or substance abuse disorders are often unreliable.

A new study examined the reliability of the DSM-IV lifetime history of alcohol dependence in a population-based sample. The researchers found that when a diagnosis is based on a single interview, the results are reliable. The study, which will be published in the September 2011 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, was conducted by Eivind Ystrom and colleagues at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.

Ystrom explained that the researchers wanted to explore the accuracy of diagnostic interviewing because people tend to be very inaccurate when interviewed about a history of psychiatric symptoms. This is usually because people don’t recall when prompted about certain events. As a result, the researchers hoped that by interviewing individuals several times about the same disorder that it might be possible to quantify how often people are accurate.

The researchers recruited a sample of 4,203 male twins in Virginia who had been assessed for lifetime alcohol dependence two different times, with the assessments occurring one year apart. The researchers used logistic regression analysis to identify clinical features that might be reliable for diagnosing alcohol dependence. The team also examined whether genetic and environmental influences were a factor.

The researchers found that certain variables were useful in predicting the reliability of the diagnosis. Not all of the symptoms that are predictive of alcohol dependence were useful in achieving a reliable diagnosis for the patient.

One of the key discoveries that the researchers identified was that men who are diagnosed with lifetime history of alcohol dependence accurately using a clinical interview had at some point in their lives sought treatment for alcohol dependence. In addition, they had experienced a relatively long period of alcohol dependence, and they spent extensive time in obtaining alcohol or recovering from alcohol use.

The results of the study show that the diagnosis of alcohol dependence may be measured accurately by determining the individual’s history on a few key measures.