Is there a connection between high intelligence and alcoholism? Well, a study by UT (University of Texas) Southwestern Medical Center researchers found a correlation between higher IQ levels in high school and increased alcohol consumption later in life. Participants with higher IQs were more likely to be moderate or heavy drinkers compared to those with lower IQs. The study’s findings were published in the journal Alcohol and Alcoholism.
The study analyzed data from 6,300 men and women who graduated from high school in Wisconsin in 1957. IQ scores were collected during their junior year, and alcohol consumption habits were reported in 2004. The study used multinomial logistic regression to examine the relationship between IQ and drinking patterns (abstainer, moderate drinker, or heavy drinker) and Poisson regression to analyze the number of binge-drinking episodes. Income and education were also considered as potential mediators.
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“We’re not saying that your IQ in high school controls your destiny,” said senior author E. Sherwood Brown, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A., Distinguished Teaching Professor of Psychiatry and in the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute at UT Southwestern. “But IQ levels could lead to intervening social factors that influence drinking, and it’s an important mechanism to explore. Higher IQ seemed to predict a greater likelihood of being a moderate or heavy drinker but not a binge drinker.”
Although Dr. Brown and UTSW colleagues have conducted numerous studies about alcohol use disorder, he said this is the first to examine predictors of drinking patterns.
Alcohol consumption is on the rise among adults, with excessive drinking linked to high blood pressure, cancer, stroke, and other diseases as people age. At the same time, Dr. Brown explained, some research comparing abstinence with moderate drinking has found a link between cognitive ability and future alcohol use.
“That led me to wonder, if alcohol influences cognition, could cognition affect alcohol consumption?” he said.
The researchers found that for every one-point increase in IQ, there was a corresponding 1.6% increase in the likelihood that respondents reported moderate or heavy alcohol use.
Income level partially influenced the relationship between IQ and drinking habits, potentially because higher IQ may lead to stressful jobs or more opportunities for social drinking among high earners.
“While it’s not possible to capture all the underlying mechanisms that mediate the relationship between drinking and IQ, we know that income partially explains the pathway between the two,” said study co-author Jayme Palka, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Psychiatry.
