If you’re one of those people who wakes up the morning after a drinking binge and remembers little from the night before, University of Iowa researchers might want to talk with you. They’re studying the relationship between alcohol and memory loss. Paul Perry, a professor of psychiatry and pharmacy at the U-of-I, is leading the study. Perry says they’re trying to assess if there’s an association between people who have a partial memory loss, or a gray-out, and complete memory loss, or a blackout, during drinking episodes. Doctor Perry says it appears most people have to drink a certain amount of alcohol before they start to forget parts of the binge. Perry says the general threshold for memory loss seems to be around a blood-alcohol level of point-15 percent, so they’re trying to find out what ranges are involved with grey-outs and blackouts. He says the people who are being questioned for the study are from a wide range of ages and all walks of life.The subjects have been arrested for underage drinking, public intoxication or drunk driving. Some are underage college students who got caught drinking in bars in downtown Iowa City, others are homeless people.
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