IT turns out that being smart can take its toll.
Having a higher IQ as a teenager makes it more likely that you'll develop alcohol dependence later in life, a new study published in Alcohol and Alcoholism has found.
Researchers at the UT Southwestern Medical Center looked at a random sample of 8,254 survey participants who answered questions about their drinking habits in 1992 and 2004, when they would have been about 53 and 65 years old.
They found that for every one-point increase in IQ, there was a corresponding 1.6% increase in the likelihood that respondents reported moderate (one to 29 drinks per month for women and one to 59 drinks for men) or heavy alcohol use (30 drinks or more per month for women and 60 drinks or more for men).
However, those with higher IQs were less likely to binge drink, measured at five or more drinks in one session.
The study also found that income level partially influenced the relationship between IQ and drinking habits, potentially because higher IQ may lead to stressful jobs.
"We're not saying that your IQ in high school controls your destiny, but IQ levels could lead to intervening social factors that influence drinking, and it's an important mechanism to explore," said senior author E. Sherwood Brown, Professor of Psychiatry and in the Peter O'Donnell Jr. Brain Institute at UT Southwestern.
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