Having low IQ causes people to drink more alcohol - study
Heavy drinkers are not as bright as everyone else, a new study has claimed, the Daily Mail reports.
But it is their lack of intelligence - which leads them to drink too much in the first place - rather than their alcohol consumption, that is the cause of their lower IQ, the study found.
Previous research has linked a lower than average IQ with a higher than average alcohol intake, said the Swedish researchers.
But their latest tests suggest that it is the lack of intelligence that comes first, not their habit for 'riskier drinking' that damages their brains.
In particular, lower IQ scores are recorded among young adult men who regularly get drunk, they told the specialist journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.
Other factors including economic background, social status and education can play a part too, they said after analysing government data on 50,000 young, adult men.
But even adjusting for other factors, there was a clear link between low IQ as young men and subsequent alcoholism problems.
The data included a psychological questionnaire on drinking habits and behaviour and general IQ tests conducted on army recruits in the seventies.
Those found to be at most risk of suffering alcoholic related problems also had the lowest IQ scores, said researchers from Stockholm's Karolinska Institutet.
Daniel Falkstedt, a professor of public health at the university, said: 'In this study of a general population, intelligence probably comes before the behaviour - in this case, alcohol consumption and a pattern of drinking in late adolescence.
'It could be the other way around for a minority of individuals, that is, when exposure to alcohol has led to cognitive impairment.
'But this is less likely to be found among young persons.'
Newsfeed
Videos
Artur Vanetsyan: I think you'll see me more often at various events in future
