Binge drinkers have more chances of developing alcohol use disorder over a period of time, a new research by the University of Chicago states.

Researchers explained that those involved in heaving drinking and reporting greater stimulation and reward from alcohol are more likely to suffer from alcohol use disorder over time.

The research, a double-blind, placebo-controlled study, the team examined the subjective response of 104 young adult heavy social drinkers to alcohol and tracked their long-term drinking habits.

"Heavy drinkers who felt alcohol's stimulant and pleasurable effects at the highest levels in their 20s were the ones with the riskiest drinking profiles in the future and most likely to go on and have alcohol problems in their 30s," Andrea King, PhD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience at the University of Chicago said in a press release.

"In comparison, participants reporting fewer positive effects of alcohol were more likely to mature out of binge drinking as they aged."

King along with her colleagues carefully screened and studied heavy social drinkers who reported a pattern of binge drinking behavior as young adults - at least four (for women) or five (for men) drinks per occasion, between 1 and 5 times a week. The control group consisted of light social drinkers.

Participants were given three sessions, in which they were given a placebo drink with only the smell of alcohol, a low dose of alcohol or a high dose. Then the respondents were told to answer questionnaires, take performance and memory tests, and were sampled for levels of the stress hormone cortisol.

The initial evaluation when the participants were in their 20s showed that that the heavy drinkers showed a strongly positive preference to alcohol, reporting greater stimulating effects, 'liking', and 'wanting more', with lower sedative and cortisol effects. Participants were then checked in regular follow-ups to track their drinking behaviors and symptoms of addiction over time.

After six year, the heavy drinkers, who reached early thrities, fell into three distinct groups of alcohol addiction symptoms -high, intermediate and low. Light drinkers formed one low-risk drinking group over time with no addiction symptoms so they were not further examined.

King and her team found that those in the high alcohol addiction symptom group reported significantly higher stimulation and pleasure from alcohol effects than members of the low or intermediate groups. Tolerance to alcohol's fatiguing effects was less predictive of the future course of addiction.

"We knew that at age 25, there were binge drinkers who were sensitive to alcohol's more positive effects," King said. "We just didn't know what was going to happen to them. Now we show that they're the ones more likely to go on to experience more alcohol problems."

King and her colleagues are now engaged in pilot work to see if early intervention in drinkers with a positive response to alcohol is effective. They also continue to follow participants well into their 30's.

"Those who drink heavily might want to pay more attention to their response to alcohol for important warning signs," King said. "If you have sensitivity to the positive effects of alcohol, it might be better to moderate your use earlier than later."

The study is published in the journal 'Biological Psychiatry'.