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Aims: To evaluate the number of subjects with possible alcohol use disorders (SPAUD) among primary care patients in Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy, by means of the self-administration of Alcohol use disorder identification test (AUDIT) and CAGE questionnaires. Methods: 939 patients waiting in 10 surgeries of primary care physicians were asked to take part in the study. A sample of 309 women and 197 men (total 506), aged between 18 and 65 years, agreed to participate and completed both questionnaires. SPAUD were defined as those achieving cut-off scores of 5 for AUDIT and/or 1 for CAGE. Results: Seventy-nine (15.61%) patients were SPAUD, achieving a positive score in at least one questionnaire. Fifty-six (11.07%) and forty-six (9.09%) patients yielded positive results with AUDIT and CAGE, respectively. Twenty-three (4.55%) patients were positive at both AUDIT and CAGE. Significantly higher proportions of men than women were recorded among SPAUD.Conclusions:The results of the present survey indicate a high number of SPAUD in a sample of primary care settings in Cagliari, closely similar to the occurrence of alcohol use disorders estimated in several other community-based primary care clinics in Western Countries.

The present study was designed to evaluate ethanol drinking behaviour in Sardinian alcohol-preferring (sP) and Sardinian alcohol-non-preferring (sNP) rats in the presence of different ethanol concentrations. Ethanol intake was tested under the two-bottle, free-choice regimen and continuous access schedule. Ethanol-naive sP and sNP rats were initially given ethanol solution at the standard, constant concentration of 10% (v/v) for 8 consecutive days (Phase 1). As expected, daily ethanol intake in sP rats rose from 4 to approximately 6 g/kg; in contrast sNP rats consumed10 g/kg/day ethanol. Subsequently, an ascending series of ethanol concentrations, ranging from 3 to 60% (v/v), was presented to sP and sNP rats over a 28-day period (Phase 2). At concentrations varying from 7 to 30%, sP rats consumed constant amounts of absolute ethanol per kg of body weight (approximately 6.0 g/kg/day). Daily ethanol intake in sNP rats remained constantly lower than 1.0 g/kg, irrespective of the ethanol concentration. Data from Phase 2 demonstrate the ability of sP rats to precisely adjust daily ethanol intake and support the hypothesis that voluntary ethanol drinking in sP rats is sustained by specific pharmacological effects of ethanol.

The effect of the dihydropyridine calcium channel antagonist, darodipine, on ethanol withdrawal syndrome was examined in rats made dependent on ethanol by repeated ethanol administration for six consecutive days. Chronic co-administration of darodipine prevented the severity of ethanol withdrawal signs in a dose-dependent fashion. By contrast, acute administration of darodipine during the ethanol withdrawal phase was ineffective in reversing the withdrawal symptoms. The results suggest that the presence of darodipine in the central nervous system during the adaptative responses to ethanol is necessary to reduce the severity of the withdrawal syndrome. They also provide further evidence for a potential clinical usefulness of dihydropyridine calcium channel blockers in treatment of ethanol withdrawal.