Why we reach for the bottle when we feel stressed out

AFTER a hard day at work, some of us can be tempted to curl up with a large glass of wine.

But scientists have found there is more to this than a desire to relax – and warn there are potentially dangerous consequences.

Increased stress levels alter the brain’s chemical make-up, triggering brain signals that are designed to calm our bodies.

But the signals that are released after using addictive substances such as alcohol are similar to these. This means that when we drink, the brain is tricked into thinking alcohol is helping us just as the natural signals do, encouraging the drinker to come back for more.

This change in the brain’s reward centre could lead to excessive drinking, the scientists say.

The team, from the University of Pennsylvania, exposed rats to acute stress for an hour, and then again 15 hours later, and measured how much sugar water laced with ethanol the mice drank.

The study, published in the journal Neuron, found the rats exposed to stress drank more of the alcohol mix than those that were not.

Dr John Dani, a professor in neuroscience, said: ‘The stress response evolved to protect us, but addictive drugs use those mechanisms and trick our brains to keep us coming back for more.’

The team now plans to study a way to normalise the firing of neurons in the brain’s reward system to help control the over-consumption of alcohol.