Jerome Clifford Foo

While PJC was a Board member of the American Foundation for Addiction Research, he is no longer a member. Moreover, neither the Foundation nor any other of the funders played any role in study design, or in data analysis or interpretation thereof. All other authors declare no conflicts of interest. The work herein was supported by an Alberta Centennial Addiction and Mental Health Research Chair and transitional funding (to KJA), Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), John R.

1 INTRODUCTION Alcohol addiction is the result of a complex interplay between social, psychological and biological factors1, 2 and has devastating health and economic consequences. Harmful alcohol consumption accounts for 8.6% and 1.7% of the global disease burden in men and women, respectively.

1 INTRODUCTION Psychological stress in daily life can cause acute changes in cardiovascular activity, such as increased heart rate and blood pressure. When these stress responses are frequent, chronic and sustained, they are considered risk factors for cardiovascular disease (Zanstra & Johnston, 2011). Cardiovascular activity in turn can influence an individual's capacity to regulate psychological stress responses in accordance with situational demands (Gross, 1998).