The effects of alcohol on the cardiovascular stress response in men at high risk for alcoholism: a dose response study.

Men at risk for alcoholism appear to be cardiovascularly hyperreactive to stressors; high doses of alcohol have been found to significantly dampen this hyperreactivity. The present study examined the effects of various doses of alcohol on cardiovascular reactivity in high- versus low-risk men. Cardiovascular reactivity to a stressor (unavoidable shock) was examined in men with multigenerational family histories of alcoholism and in family history negative men while they were sober and after they had consumed one of five alcohol doses (active placebo, 0.50, 0.75, 1.00 or 1.32 ml 95% USP alcohol/kg body weight). No significant placebo effects were observed in the active placebo condition. Furthermore, the cardiovascular reactivity dampening effect in high-risk men was evident only at moderate to high doses of alcohol, suggesting that men at high risk for the development of alcoholism must consume moderately high doses of alcohol in order to obtain this potentially reinforcing consequence.

[1]  R. Pihl,et al.  Inherited predisposition to alcoholism: characteristics of sons of male alcoholics. , 1990, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[2]  R. Pihl,et al.  Effects of alcohol on psychophysiological hyperreactivity to nonaversive and aversive stimuli in men at high risk for alcoholism. , 1990, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[3]  Jordan B. Peterson,et al.  Autonomic hyperreactivity and risk for alcoholism , 1989, Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry.

[4]  R. Pihl,et al.  Risk for alcoholism: a comparison between two different groups of sons of alcoholics on cardiovascular reactivity and sensitivity to alcohol. , 1988, Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research.

[5]  R. Pihl,et al.  Men at high risk for alcoholism: the effect of alcohol on cardiovascular response to unavoidable shock. , 1987, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[6]  R. Levenson,et al.  Greater reinforcement from alcohol for those at risk: parental risk, personality risk, and sex. , 1987, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[7]  K. Sher,et al.  Individual differences in the stress-response-dampening effect on alcohol: a dose-response study. , 1986, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[8]  R. Levenson,et al.  Risk for Alcoholism and Individual Differences in the Stress-Response-Dampening Effect of Alcohol , 1982 .

[9]  C. Robert Cloninger,et al.  Inheritance of alcohol abuse. Cross-fostering analysis of adopted men. , 1981, Archives of general psychiatry.

[10]  R. G. Loper,et al.  Identifying future alcoholics with MMPI alcoholism scales. , 1974, Quarterly journal of studies on alcohol.

[11]  M. Selzer The Michigan alcoholism screening test: the quest for a new diagnostic instrument. , 1971, The American journal of psychiatry.

[12]  M. C. Jones,et al.  Personality correlates and antecedents of drinking patterns in adult males. , 1968, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[13]  R. Pihl,et al.  Modification of the balanced-placebo design for use at high blood alcohol levels. , 1989, Addictive behaviors.

[14]  R. Murray,et al.  Twin and adoption studies. How good is the evidence for a genetic role? , 1983, Recent developments in alcoholism : an official publication of the American Medical Society on Alcoholism, the Research Society on Alcoholism, and the National Council on Alcoholism.

[15]  V. Adesso,et al.  Validation of the Sensation Scale, a measure of subjective physiological responses to alcohol. , 1980, Behaviour research and therapy.