Knowing when to say when : a simple assessment of alcohol impairment.

The use of writing samples as indicators of alcohol impairment was studied. Students at a campus fraternity party wrote a sentence and their signatures before and after consuming alcohol (in beer and mixed drinks). Later, undergraduate and graduate students attempted to discriminate between pre- and post-party handwriting samples. The percentage of correct discriminations increased directly with the blood alcohol concentration of the partier who gave the writing sample. All of the judges correctly discriminated at least 90 percent of the 18 sentences written by partiers with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.12 Or more. Implications of these findings for reducing the risk of driving while intoxicated are discussed, as well as suggested follow-up research.