Alcohol Stimulation and Sedation in Binge Drinkers

描述(申请人提供)：酗酒仍然是美国年轻人的主要问题。长期大量饮酒的人(即每周或更频繁地每次饮酒5次以上)，如果保持危险的饮酒水平，不仅会招致更大的后果和不良影响，而且发展为酒精依赖的风险也会增加。与轻度饮酒者(LDS)相比，这些早期重度饮酒者(HDs)的个体反应因素(如对乙醇的急性反应)知之甚少。这一领域的大多数实验室研究都通过阳性的酗酒家族史(FH+)检查了高危人群，对他们对酒精影响的相对敏感性和/或耐受性的结果喜忧参半。鉴于酒精使用障碍的多种病因和复杂性，重要的是扩大酒精挑战范例中审查的风险因素的范围。我们先前的数据表明，与少量饮酒者相比，酗酒者对酒精诱导的刺激表现出更高的敏感度，对酒精镇静的敏感度更低。因此，我们在研究1中的目标是复制和扩展早期重度酗酒者与轻度饮酒者急性酒精反应差异的研究结果。在拟议的受试者内部研究中，酒精的影响将在两次酒精治疗(0.4和0.8g/kg)和一次安慰剂治疗期间通过主观、客观和表现领域进行衡量。此外，我们将研究饮酒史作为风险因素的作用，以及其他潜在的风险因素，以开发急性酒精反应特征(主观刺激、镇静和客观/表现反应)的预测模型。研究2将进一步扩展这一模型，在相同的受试者中进行一项前瞻性研究，以检查急性酒精反应对未来酒精相关行为和后果的作用。我们假设，那些在测试过程中表现出对酒精强化的敏感度增加(通过兴奋和刺激来衡量)和较少酒精诱导的镇静的人，将表现出明显更多的随后大量饮酒的迹象，如通过增加酒精数量、频率、狂欢发作和早期酒精相关后果来衡量。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Binge drinking continues to be a major problem in young adults in the United States. Persons who are chronic, heavy alcohol drinkers (i.e., consume 5+ drinks/occasion on a weekly or more frequent basis) not only incur greater consequences and adverse effects if they maintain hazardous drinking levels, but are also at increased risk for progression to Alcohol Dependence. Little is known about the individual response factors, such as acute response to ethanol, in these early-age heavy drinkers (HDs) compared to light drinkers (LDs). The majority of laboratory research in this area has examined persons at high risk by virtue of a positive family history of alcoholism (FH+), with mixed results on their relative sensitivity and/or tolerance to the effects of alcohol. Given the multiple etiologies and complexities of alcohol use disorders, it is important to broaden the range of risk factors examined in alcohol challenge paradigms. Our prior data suggest that heavy drinkers show greater sensitivity to alcohol-induced stimulation and less sensitivity to alcohol sedation compared to light drinkers. Therefore, our goal in Study 1 is to replicate and extend these findings of differential acute alcohol response in early-stage heavy binge drinkers versus light drinkers. In the proposed within-subjects study, the effects of alcohol will be measured through subjective, objective, and performance domains during two alcohol sessions (0.4 and 0.8 g/kg) and a placebo session. In addition, we will examine the role of drinking history as a risk factor, along with other potential risk factors, to develop a predictive model for acute alcohol response characteristics (subjective stimulation, sedation, and objective/performance response). Study 2 will further extend this model by conducting a prospective study in the same subjects to examine the role of acute alcohol response to future alcohol-related behaviors and consequences. We hypothesize that those persons who show increased sensitivity to alcohol reinforcement, as measured by euphoria and stimulation, and less alcohol-induced sedation during the testing session will exhibit significantly greater signs of subsequent heavy drinking, as measured by heightened alcohol quantity, frequency, binge episodes, and early alcohol-related consequences.