Dataset Information

Time Delays in Transdermal Alcohol Concentrations Relative to Breath Alcohol Concentrations.

ABSTRACT:

Aims

Monitors of transdermal alcohol concentration (TAC) provide an objective measurement of alcohol consumption that is less invasive than measurements in blood, breath or urine; however, there is a substantial time delay in the onset of TAC compared to blood or breath alcohol concentrations (BrACs). The current study examined the characteristics of the delay between peak TAC and peak BrAC.

Methods

Data was aggregated from three experimental laboratory studies (N = 61; 32 men, 29 women) in which participants wore a TAC monitor and BrAC was monitored while drinking one, two, three, four and five beers in the laboratory. Analyses examined the sex- and dose-related differences in peak BrAC and TAC, the time-to-peak BrAC and TAC, and time lag between the peak BrAC and TAC values.

Results

The times-to-peak were an increasing function of the number of beers consumed. At each level of beer consumption the peak TAC averaged lower than peak BrAC and times-to-peak TAC were longer than for BrAC. The time-to-peak BrAC and TAC was longer for women than men. The congruence between peak TAC and BrAC increased as a function of the beers consumed. No sex difference in the time lag between peak BrAC and TAC was detected.

Conclusions

The congruence between TAC and BrAC and time lags between TAC and BrAC are related to the number of beers consumed. Peak values of TAC and BrAC became more congruent with higher doses but the time lag increased as a function of the amount of alcohol consumed.

Short summary

The time delay (or lag) and congruence between transdermal vs. BrACs increases as the number of beers increases. Though sex differences are evident in peak transdermal and BrACs, no sex differences were evident in the time lag and the congruence between transdermal and breath alcohol concentrations.

SUBMITTER: Karns-Wright TE

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5169032 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Time Delays in Transdermal Alcohol Concentrations Relative to Breath Alcohol Concentrations.

Karns-Wright Tara E TE Roache John D JD Hill-Kapturczak Nathalie N Liang Yuanyuan Y Mullen Jillian J Dougherty Donald M DM

Alcohol and alcoholism (Oxford, Oxfordshire) 20160813 1

<h4>Aims</h4>Monitors of transdermal alcohol concentration (TAC) provide an objective measurement of alcohol consumption that is less invasive than measurements in blood, breath or urine; however, there is a substantial time delay in the onset of TAC compared to blood or breath alcohol concentrations (BrACs). The current study examined the characteristics of the delay between peak TAC and peak BrAC.<h4>Methods</h4>Data was aggregated from three experimental laboratory studies (N = 61; 32 men, 29 ...[more]

PMID: 27522029

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Project description:BackgroundSeveral studies have objectively quantified drinking through the use of Alcohol Monitoring System's (AMS) transdermal alcohol concentration (TAC) device known as SCRAM CAM. Criteria that AMS uses to detect drinking are known to be conservative and only reliably detect heavy drinking equivalent to 5 or more standard drinks. Our group has developed Research Rules used to process TAC data in a manner that will detect low-level and moderate drinking even though it is below the AMS criteria for detection.MethodsSixteen male and 14 female paid research volunteers wore TAC monitors for 28 days in their natural environments and responded daily to text message prompts to self-report the previous day's drinking. Current analyses describe the Research Rules that we developed and how use of those rules impacts the detection of self-reported drinking treated as the standard in sensitivity/specificity analysis.ResultsWe observed 606 occurrences of positive TAC events over a total of 867 days and processed the TAC data to retain 345 as possible drinking events, even though AMS criteria confirmed drinking for only 163 of these events. The kinds of TAC events removed or retained by our rules are illustrated as cases of low and moderate drinking days that were detected by our rules but not by the conservative AMS criteria. AMS-confirmed TAC events have a high specificity (99.8%) to detect primarily heavy drinking, but have a poor sensitivity to detect lower-level drinking and a poor specificity as an indicator of alcohol abstinence. In contrast, our Research Rules detected 100% of TAC events detected by AMS but also detected 31% of the lower-level drinking events not detected by AMS, with 91% specificity.ConclusionsReliance upon the AMS criteria for alcohol detection affords a high specificity for detection of heavy drinking but is a poor indicator of abstinence rates. In contrast, use of our Research Rules provides more sensitive means to quantify either any drinking or low-moderate levels of drinking while still maintaining good specificity.

Dataset Information

Time Delays in Transdermal Alcohol Concentrations Relative to Breath Alcohol Concentrations.

Aims

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Short summary

Publications

Time Delays in Transdermal Alcohol Concentrations Relative to Breath Alcohol Concentrations.

Similar Datasets

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