Drinking to Forget? A Mixed-Methods Evaluation of the Relationships Between Post-Traumatic Alcohol Use and Memories of Traumatic Events, Among Heavy Drinking Individuals

Abstract

The stress experienced during psychological trauma can affect subsequent memories for the traumatic event. Episodic memories can become less complete and are retrieved involuntarily (i.e., as intrusive memories), causing significant distress. Alcohol intoxication before witnessing a traumatic event can affect episodic and intrusive memory quality. Nevertheless, no laboratory study to date has investigated how alcohol intoxication following a traumatic event affects episodic and intrusive memories. Heavy drinking individuals are particularly affected by post-traumatic alcohol use, motivated by beliefs that alcohol dampens the effects of psychological trauma. The extent to which post-traumatic alcohol use is motivated by memories of a traumatic event (i.e., “drinking to forget”) is less understood among this group. This thesis utilised a mixed-methods approach across quantitative and qualitative arms to evaluate these issues together. In the quantitative arm, I administered alcohol in controlled conditions (0.4g/Kg, vs. placebo) to heavy drinking individuals after watching an analogue trauma film. Post-traumatic alcohol intoxication was found to lower the likelihood of experiencing intrusive memories, whereas a limited reduction in episodic memory completeness was observed that subsided after one week. In the qualitative arm, I interviewed heavy drinking individuals about their experiences of post-traumatic drinking and psychological trauma. Interpretive phenomenological analysis of the interview transcripts generated themes highlighting strong beliefs that intoxication could impair memory, informing an intentional “drinking to forget” motive among some interviewees. Integrated results matrices of the quantitative and qualitative results demonstrated a stronger unidirectional relationship, whereby the motivating effect of memories for traumatic events on drinking may be greater than the effect of post-traumatic alcohol intoxication upon memory quality. This thesis has helped to distinguish the effects of post-traumatic alcohol intoxication from pre-traumatic intoxication, explore the significance of alcohol use and psychological trauma in an under-researched group, and pioneer mixed-methods methodology in the fields of alcohol and memory research.

Date of Award	2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Glasgow Caledonian University
Supervisor	Karen Lorimer (Supervisor), Julie Gawrylowicz (Supervisor) & Christopher Hand (Supervisor)