A Woman’s Binge Drinking May be Linked to Hormones, Study Finds
A new study published in the journal Nature Communications has found that the female hormone estrogen may be linked to binge drinking in women. Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine, led by assistant professor of pharmacology Kristen Pleil, found that estrogen can cause women to consume large quantities of alcohol after it is first offered, a behavior known as “pre-gaming.”
The study used mice to investigate the relationship between estrogen and binge drinking, and found that when estrogen levels were high, the mice drank more than when their estrogen levels were low. Researchers also discovered that this binge drinking was linked to increased activity in a brain region called the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST), which has been previously linked to drinking behavior.
The team found that when a female mouse takes her first sip of alcohol, the neurons in the BNST become highly active, and if she is in a high-estrogen state, this activity is even greater. “When a female takes her first sip from the bottle containing alcohol, those neurons go crazy,” Pleil said. “And if she’s in a high-estrogen state, they go even crazier.”
The researchers believe that this rapid mechanism of estrogen controlling behavior is a new discovery, and that this system may be relevant to both men and women. They plan to examine whether the same system regulates drinking in men, where the source of estrogen is different.
This study could lead to new approaches for treating binge drinking, by inhibiting estrogen levels or the effect of estrogen on brain cells. The researchers also noted that the results could provide an explanation for the disproportionate increase in heavy drinking among women during the pandemic, and the higher rates of alcohol-related hospital visits among women compared to men.