Alcohol Stimulation and Sedation in Binge Drinkers

描述（由申请人提供）： 酗酒仍然是美国年轻人的一个主要问题。慢性重度饮酒者（即，每周或更频繁地饮用5杯以上饮料/场合），如果他们保持危险的饮酒水平，不仅会产生更大的后果和不良影响，而且还会增加进展为酒精依赖的风险。与轻度饮酒者（LD）相比，这些早期重度饮酒者（HD）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检查了具有酒精中毒阳性家族史（FH+）的高危人群，其对酒精影响的相对敏感性和/或耐受性结果不一。鉴于酒精使用障碍的多种病因和复杂性，重要的是要扩大酒精挑战范式中检查的风险因素的范围。我们先前的数据表明，重度饮酒者对酒精诱导的刺激表现出更大的敏感性，而对酒精镇静作用的敏感性则低于轻度饮酒者。因此，我们在研究1中的目标是复制和扩展这些早期重度饮酒者与轻度饮酒者之间急性酒精反应差异的发现。在拟定的受试者内研究中，将在两次酒精治疗（0.4和0.8 g/kg）和一次安慰剂治疗期间通过主观、客观和性能领域测量酒精的影响。此外，我们将研究饮酒史作为一个危险因素的作用，沿着其他潜在的危险因素，以开发急性酒精反应特征（主观刺激，镇静，客观/性能反应）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，那些表现出对酒精强化的敏感性增加的人，如通过欣快和刺激来测量的，以及在测试过程中较少的酒精诱导的镇静，将表现出明显更大的随后大量饮酒的迹象，如通过提高酒精的量、频率、狂欢发作和早期酒精相关后果来测量的。

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.