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ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

The impact of bodyweight and body mass index on subjective intoxication and alcohol hangover severity

Sandra Rîșniță1 ,  Agnese Merlo1 ,  Gillian Bruce2 ,  Lydia E. Devenney3 ,  Joris C. Verster1,4,5*
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1 Division of Pharmacology, Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands
2 School of Education and Social Sciences, University of the West of Scotland, Paisley, United Kingdom
3 Department of Psychology and Counselling, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, The Open University, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom
4 Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Cognitive Neurophysiology, Faculty of Medicine, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany
5 Centre for Mental Health and Brain Sciences, Swinburne University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
JCBP, 025140026 https://doi.org/10.36922/JCBP025140026
Received: 1 April 2025 | Revised: 31 July 2025 | Accepted: 11 August 2025 | Published online: 8 September 2025
© 2025 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
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Abstract

Anecdotal evidence suggests that individuals with greater body weight report lower levels of subjective intoxication (i.e., drunkenness), experience hangovers less frequently, and report lower hangover severity scores compared to individuals of lower body weight. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship of body weight and body mass index (BMI) with subjective intoxication, hangover frequency, and hangover severity. Data were combined from two online surveys conducted among adults aged 18–94 years in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Ireland. Information on weekly alcohol consumption and the heaviest drinking occasion in the past month was collected. Subjective intoxication, hangover frequency in the past year, and hangover severity on the past month’s heaviest drinking occasion were compared across BMI groups (underweight, normal weight, pre-obesity, and obesity classes I, II, and III). Age, sex, alcohol intake, and drinking duration during the past month’s heaviest drinking occasion were taken into account as covariates (confounding variables). Controlling for these confounders, partial correlations were computed between body weight and BMI with subjective intoxication, hangover frequency, and hangover severity. Data from 1,615 social drinkers (mean age: 37.9 years; 74.7% females) were analyzed. No significant differences were found between BMI groups for subjective intoxication, hangover frequency, and hangover severity. Similarly, partial correlations of body weight and BMI with these outcomes were not statistically significant. In conclusion, no evidence was found for a significant relationship between body weight or BMI and subjective intoxication, hangover frequency, and hangover severity.

Keywords
Body weight
Body mass index
Subjective intoxication
Hangover frequency
Hangover severity
Immune fitness
Age
Sex
Funding
None.
Conflict of interest
Over the past 3 years, JV has acted as a consultant/advisor for Eisai, KNMP, Med Solutions, Mozand, Red Bull, Sen- Jam Pharmaceutical, and Toast!. JV, SR, and AM have received travel support from Sen-Jam Pharmaceutical. The other authors have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose.
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Journal of Clinical and Basic Psychosomatics, Electronic ISSN: 2972-4414 Print ISSN: 3060-8562, Published by AccScience Publishing
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