Marriage can counter alcoholism, feel University of Missouri researchers

It is an old belief that the drinking habit improves with maturity, and adding another point to this old theory, are researchers who claim that marriage can lead to a dramatic drop in liquor consumption even among people with severe drinking problems.

University of Missouri researchers believe that their findings could help improve clinical efforts to inform about public health policy changes and lead to more targeted interventions for young adult problem drinkers.

Researcher Matthew Lee said that the theory suggests that if a person's existing behavioral pattern conflicts with the demands of a new role, such as marriage, one way to resolve that incompatibility is to change behavior.

They have hypothesized that this incompatibility may be greater for severe drinkers.

Lee added that during their research they found that marriage not only leads to reduction in heavy drinking, but also its effect is much stronger on severe problem drinkers.

The research is published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.