Percorrer por autor "Caneda, Eduardo Lopez"
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- From abstainers to dependent drinkers: Alcohol consumption patterns and risk factors among portuguese university studentsPublication . Saldanha, Lucas; Crego, Alberto; Antunes, Natália Almeida; Rodrigues, Rui; Sampaio, Adriana; Caneda, Eduardo LopezAlcohol is the most widely consumed psychoactive substance worldwide. In Portugal, alcohol consumption is deeply embedded in social and cultural practices, contributing to high prevalence rates among university students, with binge drinking emerging as a predominant consumption pattern. Despite the associations between this drinking behaviour and numerous social, physical, and psychological problems, research on alcohol consumption in Portuguese university populations remains limited. Thus, this study aimed to provide a comprehensive description of alcohol use patterns among a large sample of Portuguese university students, focusing on adolescents and young adults. A total of 1,746 students, aged 17-24 years, were surveyed using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) and additional questionnaires regarding socio-demographic information, alcohol and illicit drug use, smoking habits, and alcohol cravings. Students were classified into five drinking groups: Abstainers (16.8%), Moderate Drinkers (35.1%), Hazardous Drinkers (25.8%), Binge Drinkers (20.8%), and Dependent Drinkers (1.5%). Statistical analyses included descriptive statistics, group comparisons, and multinomial logistic regressions to obtain Odds Ratios (ORs) for group membership. Alcohol consumption was reported by 83.2% of students over the past year. Nearly 47% of students revealed harmful drinking patterns, and 1.5% exhibited symptoms of alcohol dependence. A progressive increase in the severity of alcohol consumption characteristics was observed across the groups, with Dependent Drinkers reporting the highest levels overall. Significant predictors of group membership included polydrug use, standard weekly consumption, earlier drinking onset, and higher levels of alcohol craving. Polydrug use, reported by 27.3% of students, was the strongest predictor for being a Hazardous Drinker (OR = 10.75), Binge Drinker (OR = 13.20), and Dependent Drinker (OR = 21.40). Binge Drinkers displayed standard weekly consumption and craving levels comparable to Dependent Drinkers, while Moderate Drinkers exhibited the least risky patterns, including a later age of onset of drinking. Male students reported significantly greater consumption and craving levels than their female peers. This study highlights the prevalence of harmful drinking behaviours among Portuguese university students and identifies critical risk factors, such as polydrug use and early drinking onset. These findings underscore the need for prevention programmes focused on delaying the onset of alcohol use, reducing polydrug use, and promoting healthier behaviours within academic settings.
- Inhibitory control in addictive behaviors: is there room for memory suppression?Publication . Caneda, Eduardo Lopez; Antunes, Natália Almeida“If we remembered everything, we should on most occasions be as ill off as if we remembered nothing” (James, 1890). This phrase by James, like many others found in his masterpiece, The Principles of Psychology, perfectly encapsulates the idea that forgetting, contrary to common perception, is (in most cases) not a negative phenomenon, but serves essential adaptive functions in human life. Indeed, forgetting may be essential for mental health, as it helps regulate negative emotions by limiting access to unpleasant or embarrassing memories, thereby fostering subjective wellbeing and emotional resilience (Nørby, 2018). It also plays a crucial role in learning, facilitating the transition from detailed episodic memories to more generalized and efficient knowledge. An extreme example of the challenges associated with remembering vast amounts of information is the famous case of Solomon Shereshevsky, a Russian journalist with an extraordinary memory who was unable to forget irrelevant details, often becoming overwhelmed by excessive mental associations, as beautifully documented by Alexander Luria in the second half of the 20th century (Luria, 1968; also see Fawcett and Hulbert, 2020; Price and Davis, 2008). Moreover, forgetting ensures that our cognitive processing remains relevant to the present and future, as it filters out outdated information, enabling us to adapt flexibly to new situations and make better-guided decisions (Kuhl et al., 2007; Richards and Frankland, 2017). Thus, forgetting proves to be not only a necessary process for maintaining a healthy emotional state but also an essential mechanism for efficient cognition and dynamic adaptation to an ever-changing environment.