Energy Drinks + Alcohol = Combination Best Avoided

Remember that recent commentary published in JAMA discussing the phenomena of "wide-awake drunkeness"?  In a study just released online, some authors randomized 56 participants to either alcohol alone, energy drink alone, combination of alcohol plus energy drink, or placebo.  Baseline objective performance as well as subjective self-assessment was performed prior to imbibing and then repeated after quaffing their drinks.  As expected, those who consumed alcohol demonstrated worsening of performance.

However, those who consumed the combination of energy drink mixed with their alcohol increased their self-reported sense of awakeness but did nothing to improve their objective performance. Thus, the authors felt that the combination was even riskier than consumption of alcohol alone in that the caffeine & sugar fought off the sedating effects of the alcohol without improving performance.