Effects of drink-stress sequence and gender on alcohol stress response dampening in high and low anxiety sensitive drinkers.

Abstract: 

BACKGROUND: This study tested the appraisal disruption hypothesis of alcohol stress response dampening (SRD) in male and female high or low anxiety sensitive (AS) undergraduates. The hypothesis predicts that alcohol SRD will be greater when drinking occurs before versus after stress exposure. High AS males' predominant social-evaluative concerns further implied that alcohol SRD to a social stressor (i.e., a speech) would be relatively stronger in high AS males than in high AS females. METHODS: Male and female (n=90/gender) high and low AS participants (>or=70th;