Ethanol And Caffeine Essay

Ethanol and caffeine are two of the most commonly consumed psychoactive compounds and mixtures of caffeinated energy drinks and alcohol have become popular among young people (Alford et al., 2010). The consumption of ethanol, even in low to moderate doses, can impair psychomotor as well as cognitive ability resulting in a significant decline in performance in terms of reaction time, attention span, and driving ability, among other (Roehrs et al, 1994) and it is currently well known that ethanol has sedating as well as performance impairing effects, of which have been well documented (Roehrs and Roth, 2001).
Like ethanol, caffeine has been studied extensively, and caffeine consumption has been shown to increase alertness as well as improve both mental and physical performance in normal and sleep-deprived test subjects (Drake et al, 2003). Caffeinated energy drinks are popular among students and younger individuals due to their ability to improve memory and concentration, and reduce mental and physical fatigue (O’Brien et al, 2008). Due to these performance enhancing properties, mixtures of …show more content…
For the participant group dosed with ethanol + caffeine (150 mg) no significant differences in reaction times were observed when compared to the ethanol placebo group. In the group dosed with ethanol + caffeine (300 mg), reaction time was further reduced compared to the group dosed with the low caffeine dose. This indicates that caffeine reversed ethanol's negative effects on reaction time, and did so in a dose-dependent way. Caffeine also reversed ethanol's detrimental effects on the tracking portion of the test, but there were no significant differences between the scores of the groups dosed with ethanol + caffeine, so caffeine's effect was not dose-dependent (Drake et al,