The Warning Sign Before the Drink: Risk-Taking Rises Before Drinking Does

The Warning Sign Before the Drink: Risk-Taking Rises Before Drinking Does

In a year-long smartphone study of people with alcohol use disorder, increases in risk-taking behavior predicted increases in drinking the following month — and the reverse was not true — suggesting relapse has a detectable runway that could one day trigger just-in-time support.

Source

Increased risk-taking behavior precedes higher alcohol consumption, study finds — News-Medical (Oct 19, 2026), on Zech, H., et al. (2026), "Fluctuations in Real-Life Drinking in Alcohol Use Disorder: A 1-Year Longitudinal Study Using Gamified Tasks of Decision Making and Cognitive Control," Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, DOI 10.1016/j.bpsc.2026.07.019. Study teams: University Hospital Würzburg and Technische Universität Dresden, Germany.

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