Health & Medicine - Posted by Lois Baker-Buffalo on Wednesday, December 30, 2009 16:26 - 26 Comments 
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(16 votes, average: 1.50 out of 5) Loading ...A generation hooked on caffeine
Given the effects of caffeine in adults, researchers expected to see a difference between those who habitually consumed a lot of soft drinks and those who consumed few. However, results showed that the difference was based on gender: The males in the study worked harder and longer on a computer-based exercise to obtain caffeinated drinks.
U. BUFFALO (US)—For adults, being “addicted” to caffeine is considered perfectly normal, but what effect does chronic caffeine consumption—particularly via soft drinks—have on young people?
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The text of this article by Futurity is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License.
And, does consuming caffeinated drinks during adolescence contribute to later use of legal or illicit drugs?
Neurobiologist Jennifer Temple, assistant professor of exercise and nutrition sciences at the University at Buffalo and director of its Nutrition and Health Research Laboratory, is looking for answers to these questions through a four-year study funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Her paper addressing caffeine’s appeal to young soft drink consumers appears in the December 2009 issue of Behavioural Pharmacology, and is thought to be the first study to show a gender effect in the appeal of caffeinated soda in young people.
Given the effects of caffeine in adults, the researchers expected to see a difference between those who habitually consumed a lot of soft drinks and those who consumed few. However, results showed that the difference was based on gender: The males in the study worked harder and longer on a computer-based exercise to obtain caffeinated drinks.
While Temple’s primary research interest is a behavior called food reinforcement, she became intrigued with caffeine consumption in children after conducting a small study in 8- to 12-year-olds.
“We had a lot of kids who were drinking not only soda, but coffee,” she relates. “I had 12-year-old girls who said that all they had that morning was a cup of coffee. I started thinking—’This can’t be good.’”
These observations led Temple to investigate how hard a person will work to obtain a particular food—or in this case, a caffeine drink—and how food reinforcement mimics drug addiction. She’s hoping to more fully understand the mechanisms that underlie such reinforcement.
The recently published study on the reinforcing value of caffeine involved 26 boys and 23 girls ages 12 to 17. The participants, who were not aware the study was testing caffeine’s reinforcement effects, were placed into groups based on their reported caffeine consumption.
Participants were sent home with a week’s supply of test soda, randomized to be caffeinated or non-caffeinated, and were instructed to drink a 32-ounce bottle every day, for seven days, and to avoid other soda or caffeinated products. During the second week, they obtained a week’s supply of the opposite drink.
Participants then returned to a laboratory equipped with two computers, one on which participants played a computer game to earn caffeinated drinks and on the other, non-caffeinated drinks, although the drinks’ caffeine status was blinded. The longer they played, the more difficult the game became.
Temple says the difference in the reinforcing potential of caffeine between males and females, but not between high and low consumers, was surprising. “These data are novel and they add to the small, but growing, body of literature on caffeine use in children and adolescents.”
She speculates the gender differences could be based on the effect of circulating hormones at the time of the test, although this was not measured, and suggests the possibility that females are less sensitive to caffeine’s effects.
Temple and colleagues now have completed the second part of the study—a double-blind, placebo-controlled, dose-response study of the effects of caffeine on the teenagers’ blood pressure, heart rate, and hand tremor. Two papers currently are being drafted reporting the results. A third component of the study that focuses on the effect of caffeine consumption during adolescence on later use of legal or illegal drugs is getting under way.
University at Buffalo news: www.buffalo.edu/news/
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Una generación enganchada a la cafeína [ENG]
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Justin White
Wow, thats pretty amazing dude. I mean really good stuff. Cant start the day without it.
Joey
Couldn’t it be that the boys enjoyed the computer games more and therefore were willing to spend more time playing to get drinks, whereas the girls had less interest in the computer games?
KID ELVIS
Hmm, caffeine as a gateway drug. I never pondered the potential of Caffeine consumption to make me do things subconsciously.
When I get really spun up on Caffeine, I’d like to polish it off with a mountain of Cocaine. I just thought it was the smell of the Coke that made me want it, not Caffeine!
Jeff
Joey – I was thinking the exact same thing.
James
I think Joey is absolutely right. Boys weren’t “willing to work harder” for their caffeine so much as they routinely play video games in greater numbers and for longer stretches at a time. That should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with children; however, the fact that the comments by the researchers indicate absolutely no possibility of this effect and are quick to try and blame hormones and gender-specific biology rather than behavioral differences makes any other claim they’re making here far less credible in my opinion.
Rizu
I definitely understand the problem with kids drinking coffee instead of having a healthy breakfast, but the gentlemen are correct. I can totally see myself getting hooked on the game itself and not really caring about the “caffeine prize”. And despite all the awesome games out there, boys still play videogames more than girls.
excellent. Now we need research on the affects of caffeine on the rise of aggression in society.
Shane
You might want to go back and re-read the article. The test was divided into two phases with opposite caffeine conditioning away from the lab. There were also two computers that were controlled to reward only caffeinated OR only non-caffineated soft drinks. So, the relevant data points were not, as you seem to think,
Boy – game – caffeine reward and Girl – game – caffeine reward
Instead they were
Boy – Controlled caffeine away from lab in phase 1 – game – caffeine reward
Boy – Controlled caffeine away from lab in phase 1 – game – NO caffeine reward
Boy – Inverse caffeine away from lab in phase 2 – game – caffeine reward
Boy – Inverse caffeine away from lab in phase 2 – game – NO caffeine reward
Girl – Controlled caffeine away from lab in phase 1 – game – caffeine reward
Girl – Controlled caffeine away from lab in phase 1 – game – NO caffeine reward
Girl – Inverse caffeine away from lab in phase 2 – game – caffeine reward
Girl – Inverse caffeine away from lab in phase 2 – game – NO caffeine reward
A much more complete, and scientifically useful experiment, that takes significant pains to account for obvious variations in gender behavior.
And by the way – do any of you realize that you are indulging in EXACTLY the same gender/confirmation bias that you are accusing the researchers of? There are a host of sociological and behavioral factors that are lumped into the notion that ‘they routinely play video games in greater numbers and for longer stretches at a time’. All of those factors can be controlled for in the architecture of the study and the participant screening process, and they appear to have made every effort to do so. If you must try to stuff the study with sociological considerations, then consider the sociological forces at play on the kids in this study.
Those girls? Unlike previous generations, there is a significant chance that many, and perhaps even most of their mom’s are casual gamers. While women gamers *only* comprise about 25% of the market right now ( yes, that is correct ), the vast majority of them are in the 20-45 range, while most male gamers are in the 12 -25 range. That means that for a statistically significant number of these girls, Mom plays computer games, and Dad doesn’t – and that for another statistically significant chunk of them, both Mom and Dad are gamers. Those are normal, middle class kids with college educated parents, not ‘fringe hippies’ or economically disadvantaged kids, or some other oddball demographic. The gender assignation roles around gaming are eroding. The social stigma around video games is eroding because the parents of middle school kids were children during the ‘Golden Age of Gaming’, and parents of younger children literally can’t remember a world without Nintendo.
Eric
Studies like this do not reveal a “gender effect,” but a “gender correlation.” It might seem like nit picking, but the scientific implications are vastly different. It could be that the differences are *caused* by the biological difference between men and women, but studies involving similar socially-adjusted people, for example, may have many common environmental factors that could be more directly causing the difference.
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petrus
Shane that’s a nice in depth criticism but I think Joey hit it right on the head with that comment. Maybe if the test wasn’t a game but mindless/pointless repetitive tasks. Its pretty well known that younger boys(as a whole) are much more competitive with video games than younger girls. Eric All these sites/stories improperly use “effect” instead of “correlation”. It sounds stronger. Just a personal biased point is that I have a feeling those girls who have just coffee in the morning might be doing it as weight management technique but that could just be my worries.
fortworthpat
Coffee raises blood sugar BUT too much sugar could make one SLEEPY. So then hot, caffeine-free herbal or fruit tea or plain water could dilute out the blood sugar and stop the sleepiness. Water helps our phagocytes (germ-eating cells) work better or at all sometimes. The more water I drink, the more thirsty I am. I recommend people invest in a ceramic water filter that takes out germs and chlorine, making sink water taste better ..
Also, jumping straight up from your relaxed position will raise blood pressure for emergency thinking. I don’t recommend this unless you’ve been waiting an hour and finally get on talk radio or C-SPAN.
Sipping coffee (No Gulping) can wake one up slowly so we don’t miss that good FOX truthlet and may even help older people avoid senility! My husband says coffee is the brown food group!
Jim Hodkins
Interesting, could this addiction to caffeine also be connected to the fact that caffeine is believed to synegistically affect the sedative effects of alcohol –
http://coffeechemistry.com/index.php/News/Caffeine/coffee-may-increase-drunkensess.html
Rick
In addition to the boy like games more thing stated in previous comments there is another problem. Atleast half of the 12 year olds who say they drink coffee are lying. I remember when I was 12 all the kids say they drank coffee. So as a reward for doing something my teacher brought in coffee and doughnuts. Most of the kids spit out the coffee. Now things could have changed, but I’m thinking the 12 years olds want to sound ‘grown up.’
DHW
Males like playing video games far more than females, it has nothing to do with them wanting coffee more than females. How do you complete a study and entirely miss such a huge variable?
Shane
Re Petrus:
You seem to have missed my main point because I went off on a tangent. My primary argument was this:
Fully half of the study was conducted with boys and girls playing games that did NOT earn them caffeine rewards. To make it perfectly clear, they measured persistence both with AND without caffeine.
Their analysis revealed a difference in behaviors between the genders where caffeine WAS present.
They had baseline data where caffeine was NOT a part of the reward, and it was important enough to them that they structured the study explicitly to collect that data.
So far my kids aged 4 and 6 have not had any caffeine drinks, but I’m sure as they get older they will. I am going to try to control their intake as much as possible.
Karl
Let’s also not forget about our friend aspartame.
KactusCrow
Caffeine consumption rises as do AIDS cases.. coincidence?
Justo Diaz
The gender differences might be a manifestation of the willingness of male gamers to welcomed a greater challenged. Was this factor investigated or eliminated from the experiment?
Caffeine is different from coffee. Caffeine content in coffee is only 2%, while the other 98% content has many health benefits. One of them, neutralize the effects of caffeine in the body. I think coffee has many benefits, and it’s good for your health.
The brain gets used to the caffeine and ends up needing it just to function normally.
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