Study Shows Drunken People More Likely to Engage in Unsafe Sex

When your mother told you not to get drunk because that you might go to bed with the wrong person, she may have been onto something. A research team from Canada has proven that drinking too much alcohol causes people to have unsafe sex, which in turn spreads HIV infection.

Dr. Juergen Rehm, director of social and epidemiological research at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health in Ontario, Canada, set out to design a study that would prove a causal relationship between alcohol and unsafe sex. Before this study, it was not known whether drinking too much caused unsafe sex, or if people who drink too much simply have personality traits that lead them to drink too much, have unsafe sex, and otherwise engage in risky behaviors. Dr. Rehm and his colleagues conducted 12 experiments to prove that alcohol affects decision-making and this effect increases with the amount of alcohol consumed.

"Drinking has a causal effect on the likelihood to engage in unsafe sex and thus should be included as a major factor in preventative efforts for HIV," Dr. Rehm said. "This result also helps explain why people at risk often show this behavior despite better knowledge – alcohol is influencing their decision-processes."

The study included 12 experiments. The most interesting one was the trial in which Dr. Rehm chose participants at random and then divided them into drinking and non-drinking groups, and then later tested their intentions to take part in unsafe sex. Dr. Rehm’s team found that for each 0.1 milligrams per milliliter increase in blood alcohol level, a person’s chances of having unsafe sex increased by 5%. The unsafe level of alcohol was about four drinks for women and five for men.

"The impact rises with the amount of alcohol consumed," Dr. Rehm wrote. "The more alcohol that participants consumed, the higher their willingness to engage in unsafe sex."

This study appears in the Journal of Addiction.