The growing popularity of consuming caffeinated drinks with alcohol has prompted Alex Dopico, MD, PhD, of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center to expand the research he has pursued for more than 20 years into the effects of alcohol on the brain. Dopico, Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Pharmacology, has received a grant totaling $100,000 over two years from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) to study the effect on arteries in the brain of alcohol and caffeine when they are consumed together. The award comes in response to a competitive funding opportunity issued by the Office of Dietary Supplements of the National Institutes of Health.
Energy drinks typically contain caffeine as a primary active ingredient. An increasingly popular practice among young people involves consumption of energy drinks with alcoholic beverages.
In 2010, the Food and Drug Administration issued letters objecting to manufacturers’ claims on premixed caffeinated alcohol products that the addition of caffeine to the alcoholic beverages is generally safe. As a result, manufacturers removed premixed caffeinated alcohol products from the market. However, the practice of consuming energy drinks along with alcoholic beverages is on the rise.
Dopico’s new grant supplements a $3.6 million, 10-year research award he received in 2009 from the NIAAA for his alcohol studies.