Effects of a binge drinking history or an acute episode on the stress response in adolescents: an experimental gender perspective

Adolescence is a period of vulnerability to alcohol binge drinking (BD), being this consumption pattern very common among adolescents and young adults. Furthermore, there is a lack of experimental studies evaluating the effects of alcohol in adolescent population of both sexes. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of having a binge drinking (BD) consumption history and/or an acute BD episode on the stress response in male and female adolescents. Participants were 150 adolescents (75 females and 75 males). According to their drinking pattern, subjects were assigned to one of three experimental conditions in each sex: Refrainers-Control (R-Co), Binge Drinkers-Control (BD-Co) or Binge Drinkers-Alcohol (BD-A). After treatment, their stress response was measured throughout the following parameters: cortisol, systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP and DBP), heart rate (HR) and perceived stress (PS). A decrease of cortisol levels over time was observed in the present study. Also, the experimental condition was significant for HR, showing the BD-A group higher HR than any other group. Regardless of the experimental condition, sex differences were evident in several measures, males showing higher cortisol levels and higher SBP than females, while females obtaining higher PS scores than males. In conclusion, both the decrease of cortisol levels over time and the gender differences in cortisol, SPB and PS strengthen our previous results, using gender as an experimental variable. Furthermore, an acute BD episode in binge drinkers increases HR without affecting the other stress variables, providing a new finding in this field of research.