Alcohol and Secobarbital Effects as a Function of Familial Alcoholism: Extended Intoxication and Increased Withdrawal Effects

Abstract

Response differences following administration of alcohol between adult males with a positive (FHP) versus negative (FHN) family history of alcoholism have been demonstrated in previous research and are thought to be related to risk for developing alcoholism. If this is so, the pharmacological breadth of addiction risk conferred by a positive family alcoholism history might be studied by determining whether FHP subjects show different responses than FHN to drug classes other than alcohol. We have previously reported on the acute effects of ethanol as compared with secobarbital in FHP and FHN subjects and found that FHP subjects showed greater sensitivity across a variety of subjective measures than FHN subjects for both drug classes. The data reported here are based on an extended data collection period of 3 to 18 hr postingestion, following completion of the acute laboratory portion of the study. Specifically, in the present study, dose-effect timecourse functions for a variety of physiological (heart rate, blood pressure, and breath alcohol level), subjective (analog mood, drug effect, and withdrawal, Subjective High Assessment Scale (SHAS], and psychomotor measures (Digit Symbol Substitution Test and numeric recall) were examined in FHP and FHN college-aged males for secobarbital (0, 100, 200 mg daily) and ethanol (1 g/kg daily). FHP and FHN subjects were matched on light-to-moderate drinking patterns, anthropometric dimensions, age, years of schooling, and drug use. FHP subjects reported more extended intoxication and greater withdrawal effects following both ethanol and the high dose of secobarbital than did FHN subjects.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Low Sensitivity to Alcohol: Relations With Hangover Occurrence and Susceptibility in an Ecological Momentary Assessment Investigation

“…Notably, results from some laboratory challenge investigations contradict one derivative prediction-that familial alcoholism risk would be associated with decreased hangover sensitivity. Available evidence indicates either null fi ndings (Howland et al, 2008a) or enhanced hangover sensitivity among offspring of alcoholics (McCaul et al, 1991;Span and Earleywine, 1999).…”

Development and Initial Validation of the Hangover Symptoms Scale: Prevalence and Correlates of Hangover Symptoms in College Students

“…Hangover may also have prognostic significance. Recent research has found relations between hangover frequency and individual difference variables known to modify risk for the development of alcohol use disorders (McCaul et al, 1991;Newlin and Pretorious, 1990;Earleywine, 1993a;Span and Earleywine, 1999;Wall et al, 2000).…”

“…Presumably, if the HSS is a valid measure of hangover, then it should be robustly related to drinking heaviness. Based on prior research (Newlin and Pretorious, 1990;Span and Earleywine, 1999;McCaul et al, 1991) we also predicted that persons with a family history of alcoholism would report more frequent hangover.…”

Alcohol Hangover and Risk of Drinking Problems and Alcohol Use Disorder: A Systematic Review

“…Sons of alcoholics have reported worse hangover symptoms than others [15][16][17]. This led to the hair of the dog theory, arguing that alcohol is consumed the morning following heavy drinking with the purpose of alleviating hangover symptoms, resulting in increased alcohol intake and ultimately alcohol dependency [18][19][20].…”