SWEET OBLIVION

Problem drinkers often have a taste for sugar

A SWEET tooth combined with certain personality traits is a strong marker
for alcoholism, say scientists in North Carolina who have devised a simple
test they claim can identify 85 per cent of alcoholics.

Alexei Kampov-Polevoy of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
had noticed that recovering alcoholics often consume huge amounts of
sweets. "It's common knowledge," he says. "But there is no mention of it in
textbooks." Many alcoholics also drink large quantities of sweet drinks.

But not everyone with a sweet tooth goes on to abuse alcohol. So
Kampov-Polevoy and his colleagues devised a test that combines a
sweet-loving measure with an established personality test, looking at three
types of behaviour: novelty seeking, harm avoidance and dependence on
rewards.

The sweet-preference test involves giving five sucrose solutions in random
order, with concentrations ranging from 0 05 to 0 83 molar The latter is
about two-and-a-half times as sweet as a typical carbonated soft drink.

In tests, 62 per cent of alcoholics preferred the highest sucrose
concentration--- three times the proportion in people with no drink
problem. These sweet-loving alcoholics also scored high on novelty seeking
and harm avoidance. This is the kind of person who "wants to skydive but is
afraid of the plane", says KampovPolevoy. Sweet-lovers who were not
alcoholics scored lower than normal on both these measures.

In the latest issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research (vol
22, p 610), the researchers describe an experiment where they evaluated the
test on 78 volunteers, one-third of whom were alcoholics. It classified 66
of them correctly.

The researchers suspect it may be possible to identify potential
sweet-loving alcoholics at an early age, and caution them about alcohol
abuse. "Maybe they can learn moderation," says Kampov-Polevoy. He believes
the test will also apply to other forms of addiction.

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)