Episode 29 - Non-Alcoholic Beverages with Dr. Molly Bowdring

April is Alcohol Awareness Month, so to kick things off I'm having a conversation with Dr. Molly Bowdring!

Dr. Bowdring is a clinical scholar and postdoctoral researcher in the Stanford Prevention Research Center, a clinician at Stanford's Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic, and the author of a recently-published peer-reviewed article (link below) on non-alcoholic beverages (NABs), with several more on this topic on the way!  Her research centers on factors that contribute to initiation, maintenance, and exacerbation of substance use, as well as identifying approaches to decrease risky use patterns. She is currently interested in studying the relationship between non-alcoholic beverage use (e.g., non-alcoholic beers/wines/liquor) and alcohol use.

Topics discussed include:

-  What is a non-alcoholic beverage, exactly?  Are they all made the same way, or are there differences?

- How is the general public using NABs at the moment?  What are the use cases?

-  If someone has alcoholism, how should they judge the decision about whether or not to drink NABs?  What are possible risk factors?

- Are NABs safe if you're pregnant?

- Is it currently legal to sell NABs to teens?  And if so, what are the implications on those teens' progression to full-strength alcohol consumption?

To get in touch with Dr. Bowdring, you can find more information about her and her contact information on her Stanford profile: https://profiles.stanford.edu/bowdring

And for those interested, here's Dr. Bowdring's most recent study: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/add.16452