Hangovers Might Herald More Impairment Than We Thought

Studies on whether hangovers affect cognitive and psychomotor skills have yielded mixed findings. A recent consensus definition for hangover (“mental and physical symptoms, experienced the day after a single episode of heavy drinking, starting when blood alcohol concentration approaches zero”; Curr Drug Abuse Rev 2016; 9:148) inspired investigators to use this definition to guide inclusion criteria for a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies of the functional effects of hangover.

For the qualitative systematic review, the researchers identified 19 naturalistic and experimental studies that measured participants' blood alcohol concentrations at <0.02%; 11 studies had sufficient data for meta-analysis.

Sustained attention (the ability …