Quick mindfulness can help curb drinking

Heavy drinkers may be able to cut back after brief mindfulness training exercises that involve helping them focus on what’s happening in the present moment, a small experiment in the UK suggests.

Researchers recruited 68 heavy drinkers who weren’t alcoholics for the test. They randomly assigned participants to receive either a training session in relaxation strategies or an 11-minute training session in mindfulness techniques to help them recognize cravings without acting on them.

Over the next week, people who received mindfulness training drank significantly less than they had during the week before the study started, but people in the relaxation group did not drink significantly less.

“Our study was not a clinical trial and did not involve ‘treating’ people who needed help cutting down their alcohol use,” said study co-author Dr Damla Irez of University College London.

“But it did suggest that people who drink too much, but don’t have an alcohol use disorder, might be able to reduce their consumption, at least in the short term, by practicing mindfulness,” Irez said by email.

During the mindfulness training, people were told to pay attention to cravings instead of suppressing them. They were told that by noticing bodily sensations, they could tolerate them as temporary events without needing to act on them.

Relaxation training, meanwhile, told people that softening the muscles, calming and unwinding the mind and releasing tension in the body can reduce the intensity of cravings. After receiving one of these trainings, participants were encouraged to practice the techniques they learned over the next week.