A new study has found mixing alcohol and caffeinated drinks—like the ever-popular Vodka Red Bull—leads to similar brain effects as taking cocaine. Earlier this year, another study concluded cocaine causes the brain to “cannibalize” itself.
The new study, published in the PLoS (Public Library of Science) journal, was conducted by Purdue University researchers who examined the effects of caffeinated drinks and alcohol on male and female mice, both young and old.
Researchers found that when given caffeine-mixed alcohol, the mice became increasingly more active, similar to when they were given cocaine. According to the study, “...repeated exposure to caffeine-mixed alcohol during adolescence causes unique behavioral and neurochemical effects not observed in mice exposed to caffeine or alcohol alone.” Those “behavioral and neurochemical” brain effects could increase the likelihood of substance abuse in adolescents’ futures “as means to compensate for these behavioral and neurochemical alterations.” The study found adolescents exposed to caffeine-mixed alcohol become less sensitive to cocaine, meaning they would need a higher dose to truly feels the effects. On a physical level, mice given the caffeine-alcohol mixture showed an increase in the protein ΔFosB, which also shows up in higher-than-normal amounts in people with drug addictions.
The study also confirmed that caffeine, a stimulant, can lessen the effects of alcohol, a depressant, causing a “‘wide-awake drunk’ behavioral state.”
When not mixed with alcohol, caffeine actually could do some good—another recent study found drinking coffee might undo liver damage. Then again, teens these days are drinking and doing drugs less, so maybe there isn’t too much to worry about.
