College students who mix alcohol and caffeinated energy drinks are far more likely to engage in casual, risky sex that can put them in danger, a new study finds.
Investigators with the University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions found students who consumed alcohol mixed with energy drinks were more likely to report having a casual partner and being intoxicated during their most recent sexual encounter.
The results, reported in the Journal of Caffeine Research, suggest such cocktails play a role in the "hook-up culture" that on many college campuses that may put students at risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases, sexual assault, depression, drunk driving, and having unwanted pregnancies, said researcher Kathleen E. Miller.
"Mixing energy drinks with alcohol can lead to unintentional overdrinking, because the caffeine makes it harder to assess your own level of intoxication," said Miller, noting the combination can “have stronger priming effects than alcohol alone. In other words, they increase the craving for another drink, so that you end up drinking more overall."
For the study, which was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Miller and her colleagues tracked 648 students at a large public university. Nearly one in three sexually active students reported consuming alcohol and energy drinks. About 45.1 percent of the students reported having had casual sex recently, 24.8 percent said they were intoxicated at the time and 43.6 percent acknowledged that they did not use a condom.