Drinking alone and cognitive health

Photo: Unsplash/Andrew Seaman

Studies regarding the potential health risks—and benefits—of alcohol use have reached widely differing conclusions.

But researchers seem to agree on at least one thing: Drinking alone is a red flag.

Carillon Skrzynski, an assistant research professor at the Center for Health and Neuroscience, Genes and Environment (CUChange), analyzed how solitary drinking affects cognitive function using a dataset compiled by Angela Bryan, professor of psychology and neuroscience and co-director of CUChange.

The study compared outcomes among older adults who drank alone, those who drank only socially and those who did not drink alcohol at all, among other aims.

“Solitary drinking is associated with many different negative consequences and correlates,” Skrzynski said.

“Our results expand knowledge of solitary drinking in older adulthood by connecting it to poorer objective and subjective cognitive function,” the authors concluded.