The effects of alcoholic hangover on human performance

Abstract

This dissertation aims at determining the possible effects of alcoholic hangover on human behaviour by examining the effects of acute alcohol consumption (> 1g/kg) 14-16 hours following alcohol ingestion on simple and choice reaction times, divided attention tasks and driving skills. The hypotheses are that cognitive and behavioural functioning is impaired even after the blood alcohol concentration level has returned to zero The California Computerised Assessment Package (CALCAP) together with selected driving skills tasks, repeated breath analysis measures, a biographical questionnaire, a subjective hangover rating scale, and blood glucose tests were administered to a group of 63 mixed gender student volunteers. The experimental group and was tested prior to, and during hangover. The control group was pre- and post-tested in order to determif.le the impact of practice effects. Results indicate that hangover individuals performed less well than control subjects on measures of reaction time and driving precision. Further more, the findings show that subjective experience of hangover is not a good predictor of reaction time or driving performance, and that the absence of hangover symptoms does not guarantee full mental recovery. Statistical analysis of the data showed that post-test findings could not be attributed to a gender effect.