Caffeine Doesn't Sober You Up

Dec. 10 -- WEDNESDAY, Dec. 9 (HealthDay News) -- Downing a cup or two of coffee after a few belts of liquor won't sober you up enough to get you safely behind the wheel of a car, new research concludes.

Alcohol may lessen the effects of caffeine, but caffeine doesn't mitigate the impaired decision-making brought on by alcohol, the study found.

The implications of the study are also especially important for younger people, to whom many of the new high-octane, alcohol-caffeine combination drinks are marketed, the researchers added.

"Caffeine decreases the sedative effects of alcohol but it doesn't improve cognitive function, which means that decision-making processes may be compromised," said Thomas Gould, co-author of the study published in the current issue of the journal Behavioral Neursocience. "People assume they're not as drunk as they are and the impaired cognition that remains may lead to poor choices and decision-making. And people often drink more when it's a caffeine-alcohol mix."

"Caffeine doesn't change blood alcohol levels and it doesn't change things as far as being able to make proper choices, and those can lead to very dire consequences," added Gould, director of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at Temple University in Philadelphia.

"Alcohol and coffee are not a good mix," agreed Jean Bidlack, a professor of pharmacology and physiology at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is looking into the safety and legality of making and selling popular alcohol drinks that contain caffeine. In November, the agency sent letters to nearly 30 manufacturers of such drinks, which are marketed under names such as "Joose," "Spykes" and "Sparks," asking them to show why their products are safe and under what authority they think they can sell them.

According to an FDA news release, up to 26 percent of college students consume these high-octane beverages.