Just the smell of alcohol can make it difficult to maintain self-control, new research has shown.

The smell of alcohol may make it harder for people to control their behaviour.

Just the smell of alcohol may trigger the cognitive response in the brain to want and need to consume it.

An experiment was carried out by a research team at Edge Hill University.

participants were asked to wear a face mask that was either laced with alcohol, or a non-alcoholic citrus solution. Participants were then instructed to press a button when either the letter K or a picture of a beer bottle appeared on their screen.

The researchers measured the number of times the participants incorrectly pressed the button causing a 'false alarm'. These false alarms indicate a reduction in the participant's power to inhibit their behaviour when they were expected to.

Dr Rebecca Monk, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Edge Hill University said that she and her fellow researchers found that the number of these 'false alarms' were higher in participants who were wearing the alcohol treated mask.

In other words, their behaviour was altered from the smell of alcohol alone.

Things that trigger alcohol consumption might be our state of mind and emotions, the environment we are in or the people in our company. This is the first investigation into other kinds of triggers - such as our sense of smell.

Although this was only an early lab based experiment into further triggers regarding alcohol, during the experiment it seemed that just the smell of alcohol was making it harder for participants to control their behaviour to stop pressing a button.

Imagine someone faced with the daily torment of wanting to drink but had faced health problems from alcohol consumption and depression resulting in drinking, they had been sober for weeks, months or even years, when one day their cognitive trigger is set off by just walking past a busy pub.

People who have suffered from alcoholism and addiction problems (if this test is proven further), would need to avoid pubs and bars and many other social occasions not only to resist temptation from environment and peer pressure, but now also for protection from just the sheer smell of alcohol alone!

If you or someone you know is suffering from substance abuse, please contact Sam or Jackie at Therapy for Life for immediate help and support.

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