Study: Mixing Alcohol With Energy Drinks Similar To Effects Of Cocaine

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (CBS) -- You may want to lay off the vodka and Red Bull because a new study finds mixing alcohol with energy drinks has a similar effect as doing cocaine.

Researchers from Purdue University administered either water, alcohol, caffeine, caffeine-mixed alcohol or cocaine to adolescent mice five days a week over a four-week period and observed the effects. The study, published in the journal PLOS One, was conducted to help determine possible consequences of humans' co-consumption of alcohol and caffeine as energy drink products continue to hit the market.

Based on the animal model, the authors found mice's response to caffeine-mixed alcohol resembled the response observed upon chronic cocaine exposure, specifically when watching how the animals moved about their cages.

They said the animals' increased activity agreed with a "wide-awake drunk" effect described in previous data.

Researchers concluded that repeated exposure to caffeine-mixed alcohol during adolescence could pose a risk to future behavioral and neurological development. The exposure could prove more problematic for females in particular who appeared to be more sensitive to the substance than males.