Clinical Studies Investigating Aggressive Behaviors And

酗酒通常与攻击性行为、吸烟和饮食改变/不足有关。为了探索这些常见合并症的各个方面，我们开展了几项临床研究，旨在探索它们与酒精中毒病理生理的关系。我们的研究方面与最近解毒的酗酒者戒烟有关，发现吸烟酗酒者的脑脊液同香草酸（HVA）浓度明显低于非吸烟酗酒者。我们还发现，吸烟和不吸烟的酗酒者之间的各种酒精消耗量没有显著差异。不幸的是，血浆可替宁水平显示，在我们的研究过程中，方案参与者无法完全戒烟，因此，我们无法确定戒烟对CSF HVA浓度的影响。研究表明，饮酒与暴力行为之间存在着密切的联系，然而，人们对酒精诱发攻击行为的实际机制知之甚少。我们的研究计划正在进行中，以确定使用血清素再摄取抑制剂治疗是否可以显著改善用于量化家庭暴力频繁发作的个体攻击性的标准化措施。迄今为止，已有5名受试者参加了这项研究。在我们的2DG研究中，清醒的酗酒者经常报告说，他们狂吃甜食是为了减少喝酒的欲望。这种对甜食的过度渴望促成了一种假设，即酒精的消耗受到与调节碳水化合物摄入相同的机制的调节。为了探索这一假设，我们研究了葡萄糖酸化对长期清醒酗酒者碳水化合物消耗的影响。我们的研究结果表明，在2DG刺激下，酗酒者和健康志愿者之间的食物消耗没有差异，研究结果将发表在2002年的《酒精与酒精中毒》杂志上。在这项研究中，我们还发现酒精组对血糖的反应明显减弱。我们的结论是，非典型血糖反应可能早于酒精中毒发作，也可能继发于持续6个月以上的酒精相关损伤。先前关于嗜酒者甜食消费量增加的说法没有得到证实，尽管它们可能在戒酒期间出现。在我们即将开始的一个新的研究领域中，文献表明，酗酒者经常在营养摄入方面受到干扰，这可能会导致情绪（即抑郁和敌意）和认知能力的变化。一种可能与这两种临床状态有关的营养物质是二十二碳六烯酸（DHA）。由于长期饮酒会消耗大脑中的DHA，我们设计了一项研究，使我们能够量化和成像最近解毒的酗酒者和健康对照者大脑中DHA的摄取。这项研究很重要，因为目前还没有方法可以让我们评估人脑中的DHA代谢。

Alcoholism is frequently associated with aggressive behaviors, smoking and dietary changes/deficiencies. To explore facets of each of these common co-morbidities, we have initiated several clinical research studies designed to explore their association with the pathophysiology of alcoholism. The aspect of our research related to smoking cessation in recently detoxified alcoholics revealed that smoking alcoholics had significantly lower concentrations of CSF Homovanillic Acid (HVA) compared with non-smoking alcoholics. We also found that there was no significant difference for various measures of alcohol consumption between smoking and non-smoking alcoholics. Unfortunately, plasma cotinine levels revealed that protocol participants were unable to totally refrain from smoking during the course of our study, therefore, we were unable to determine the effects of smoking cessation of CSF HVA concentrations. It has been shown that there is a strong association between alcohol consumption and violent behavior, however, the actual mechanism(s) by which alcohol induces aggressive behavior is poorly understood. Our research initiative to determine if treatment with a serotonin reuptake inhibitor can produce a significant improvement on standardized measures used to quantify aggression in individuals characterized by frequent episodes of domestic violence is currently in progress. To date five subjects have been enrolled in the study. In our 2DG study, sober alcoholics frequently report that they binge on sweets to decrease their desire to drink alcohol. This exaggerated desire for sweets has contributed to the postulate that alcohol consumption is regulated by the same mechanisms that regulate the intake of carbohydrates. To explore this postulate we examined the effects of glucoprivation on carbohydrate consumption in long-term sober alcoholics. Our finding showing that there were no differences in food consumption between alcoholics and healthy volunteers following 2DG stimulus will be published in Alcohol & Alcoholism in 2002. In this study we also found that the alcoholic group had a significantly blunted response in blood glucose. We concluded that the atypical blood glucose response may antedate the onset of alcoholism or it may be secondary to alcohol-related damage that persists beyond six months. Previous accounts of increased sweet consumption in alcoholics were not substantiated, although they may be present during the peri-withdrawal period. In a new area of research that we are about to begin, the literature suggests that alcoholics frequently have disturbances in nutritional intake that may contribute to changes in mood (i.e., depression and hostility) as well as cognition. One possible nutrient that has been implicated in both of these clinical states is docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Since chronic alcohol intake depletes DHA from the brain, we designed a study that would allow us to quantify and image the uptake of DHA in the brains of recently detoxified alcoholics and healthy controls. This study is important because there is no methodology currently available that will allow us to assess DHA metabolism in the human brain.