Does Drinking Promote Risky Sexual Behavior? A Complex Answer to a Simple Question
نویسنده
چکیده
The present review argues that, popular lore notwithstanding, the well-documented association between usual patterns of alcohol use and risky sex reflects multiple underlying processes that are both causal and noncausal (spurious) in nature. It is further argued that even alcohol’s acute causal effects on sexual behavior are more variable than they are commonly assumed to be. Drinking can promote, inhibit, or have no effect on behavior, depending on the interplay of factors governing behavior in a particular situation and the content of individually held beliefs about alcohol’s effects. KEYWORDS—alcohol; risky sex; condom use With the advent of AIDS, efforts to understand the causes of sexual risk-taking have assumed great urgency. In this context, alcohol and its potential disinhibiting effects have received much attention. In the past 20 years, more than 600 studies have been conducted on the link between drinking and risky sex, and drinking proximal to intercourse has become a standard target of intervention efforts aimed at reducing risky sexual behaviors. Targeting drinking as part of a strategy to reduce risky sex can only be effective if drinking causally promotes such behaviors, however. Does the evidence support this connection? Conventional wisdom aside, the answer to this question is surprisingly complex.
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تاریخ انتشار 2006