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Background: The neurobiology of risk for alcohol use disorders (AUDs) remains poorly understood. Individual differences in vulnerability, though, have been indicated by subjective responses to alcohol ingestion and personality traits., Methods: To investigate the relationship between these features and striatal dopamine (DA) responses to alcohol, we studied 26 healthy young social drinkers (21.3 ± 3.0 years old; 10.7 ± 8.8 drinks/wk) at varying risk for alcoholism. Each participant received 2 positron emission tomography [(11) C]raclopride scans after administration of either placebo or oral alcohol (1 ml/kg body weight of 94% alcohol, 0.75 g/kg) in a randomized and counterbalanced design., Results: Subjects with high-risk subjective responses to alcohol had more family members with AUDs, greater alcohol use problems, and, in response to the alcohol challenge, significant decreases in [(11) C]raclopride binding indicative of increased extracellular DA. In contrast, low-risk subjects exhibited increases in [(11) C]raclopride binding in response to alcohol. The results were similar when risk groups were based on personality traits, although statistically less robust., Conclusions: Changes in striatal DA in response to alcohol ingestion may be a neurobiological marker of vulnerability to AUDs., (Copyright © 2013 by the Research Society on Alcoholism.)

Background: An exaggerated heart rate (HR) increase following alcohol intoxication has been suggested to reflect sensitivity to alcohol-induced reward. The goal of this study is to verify whether pairing alcohol ingestion with conditioned reward and nonreward cues can influence HR responses to alcohol in previously identified individuals with a low and a high HR response. Methods: Fifty-six male social drinkers participated in a 2-day study. On day 1, participants consumed 0.75 g/kg of body weight of pure ethanol. A median split of the alcohol-induced HR responses identified groups of low and high HR responders. On day 2, both groups participated while sober in a computer task where distinct auditory and visual cues were paired either with monetary reward or no monetary reward. Subsequently, participants were randomly assigned to an alcohol challenge, which occurred while they were exposed to either the conditioned cues of reward or to the nonreward cues. Results: The physiological response to alcohol intoxication on day 2 was compared with alcohol-induced HR responses on day 1 (neutral alcohol challenge) for both low and high HR responders. Paired t-tests showed that high HR responders had significantly decreased alcohol-induced HR responses on day 2 in the nonreward condition when compared with day 1. No other relationships between cardiac responses to alcohol and cue conditions were obtained. Conclusions: The rewarding nature of alcohol can be altered by the context in which it is consumed in a subset of individuals who are sensitive to alcohol's stimulating properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simultaneous polysubstance use (SPU) is a common phenomenon, yet little is known about how various substances are used with one another. In the present study 149 drug-using university students completed structured interviews about their use of various substances. For each substance ever used, participants provided details about the type, order and amount of all substances co-administered during its most recent administration. Alcohol, tobacco and cannabis were frequently co-administered with each other and with all other substances. Chi-squared tests revealed that when alcohol was used in combination with any of cannabis, psilocybin, MDMA, cocaine, amphetamine, methylphenidate (ps < 0.01) or LSD (p < 0.05) its initial use preceded the administration of the other substance. Paired samples t-tests revealed that when alcohol was used with cocaine (p < 0.01) or methylphenidate (p < 0.05) it was ingested in greater quantities than when used in their absence. Patterns of cannabis use were not systematically related to other substances administered. Finally, using one-sample t-tests, tobacco use was demonstrated to be increased relative to ‘sober’ smoking rates when used with alcohol, cannabis, psilocybin, MDMA, cocaine, amphetamine (ps < 0.001), LSD (p < 0.01) or methylphenidate (p < 0.05). Results suggest that many substances are routinely used in a SPU context and that the pattern in which a substance is used may be related to other substances co-administered. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study examined the elevated heart rate (HR) response to alcohol intoxication, thought to reflect an increased sensitivity to alcohol-induced reward, as a potential factor in the increased likelihood of alcohol-induced aggression. Methods: Three groups, intoxicated high ( n=37) and low ( n=37) HR responders and sober controls ( n=73), participated in a laboratory measure of physical aggression, the Taylor Aggression Paradigm. Results: Results revealed that intoxicated high HR responders were more aggressive than the intoxicated low HR responders and sober controls. Conclusions: These findings are interpreted within a hypothetical model relating increased alcohol-induced aggression to a dysregulation in the motivational system responding to rewards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existence of a relationship between cardiovascular reactivity to signalled shock and alcohol consumption can be inferred from studies of males at increased familial risk for alcoholism. The present study examined two groups of nonalcoholic men—those with multigenerational histories (MGH) of alcoholism and family-history negative (FH-) controls—to determine whether reactivity was related to voluntary ethanol consumption in the context of a beverage taste test. High reactors, a significant majority of whom were MGH males, drank significantly more vodka and orange juice, rum and coke, and orange juice when asked to rate the flavor of three alcoholic and two nonalcoholic drinks. High reactors also consumed more alcohol on a weekly basis according to their self-report. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous studies have demonstrated the existence of an association between alcoholism and antisocial personality (ASP). The present study tested two hypotheses: First, that nonalcoholic men with a muitigenerational familial history (MGH) of alcoholism would play more cards on a card task that has been shown previously to differentiate antisocial populations from normals and, second, that MGH subjects would display more evidence of ASP on two personality questionnaires: The Self-Report Psychopathy scale and the Socialization scale of the California Psychological Inventory. A total of 28 subjects (14 MGH and 14 family history negative for alcoholism [FH-]) were employed in this study. MGH subjects played significantly more cards during the card task than did FH- subjects. However, the two groups did not differ on the ASP questionnaires. The possibility that a subtle frontal-lobe deficit, rather than ASP per se, underlies the poorer performance of the MGH males is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]