Alcohol + energy drinks = increased risk

If you mix highly caffeinated energy drinks with alcohol you’re increasing your risk for injury—both intentional and unintentional— says a new study by the University of Victoria’s Centre for Addictions Research of BC (CARBC).

In the first systematic review of published research on the subject, Audra Roemer, a doctoral student in clinical psychology and the study’s lead researcher, found that of the 13 studies that fit their research criteria, 10 showed evidence of a link between the use of alcohol mixed with energy drinks and an increased risk of injury, compared to drinking alcohol only.

“The stimulant effects of caffeine mask the sedative effects of alcohol,” she says. “Usually when you’re drinking alcohol, you eventually get tired and you go home.

Energy drinks mask that, so people may underestimate how intoxicated they are, end up staying out later, consume more alcohol, and engage in risky behavior and more hazardous drinking practices.”

However, given the variability in the relatively few studies on the topic to date, the authors could not statistically determine the exact extent of the increased risk associated with mixing alcohol and energy drinks.

To get a closer look at the relationship between alcohol, energy drinks and injury—and in response to calls from Health Canada and others for more research in this area—Roemer is currently running a controlled emergency room study in Vancouver and Victoria.

“When we look at alcohol alone, there’s a clear dose-response relationship: when you drink more, the risk goes up,” she explains.

With one or two drinks, the risk of injury is twice as likely as when completely sober. With six drinks, there’s a six-fold increase in risk.

But when alcohol is mixed with energy drinks, Roemer has observed what she calls a surge in response—according to preliminary analysis based on a relatively small sample size, the risk of injury is somewhere in the order of 20 times greater.

The study was published in the March issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.