Alcohol Dependence and Responsivity to an Ethanol Stimulus as Predictors of Alcohol Consumption^*

Abstract

Summary Withdrawal symptoms during the previous 30 days were examined in relation to psychophysiological arousal, desire to drink, and operant behavior associated with alcohol consumption. The subjects were 16 male alcoholic patients and 16 control subjects that had been randomly assigned to either an alcohol or placebo condition. Alcoholics showed a greater desire to drink than their respective controls. There was also a significant correlation between autonomic arousal and desire to drink among alcoholics but not controls. There was some evidence that arousal was related to alcohol dependence among alcoholics. Placebo responding among alcoholics was also related to alcohol dependence. Of particular significance was that desire to drink, withdrawal symptomatology, and heart rate accounted for over 57% of the variance in predicting which alcoholics would choose the drink reward following the operant task. These results support the notion that disposition to drink in alcoholics should be examined in a multivariate context.

Effects of Irritability on Craving before and after Cue Exposure in Abstinent Alcoholic Inpatients: Experimental Data on Subjective Response and Heart Rate

“…Kaplan et al, 1983;McCusker and Brown, 1991;Kaplan et al, 1985;Cooney et al, 1997;Glautier and Drummond, 1994;McCaul et al, 1989aMcCaul et al, , 1989bStormark et al, 1995], although their experimental designs, including cues, induction methods, and features of participants differ from one another. Rajan et al [1998] even deemed it as a reliable indicator of cue reactivity.…”

Role of Aggressivity on Reactivity and Craving before and after Cue Exposure in Recently Detoxified Alcoholics: Results from an Experimental Study

“…11,25,26,36,59]; their experimental designs, including features of subjects, cues, induction methods, differ from one another though. Therefore, heart rate is frequently deemed as a reliable indicator of cue reactivity in alcoholics [50].…”

Stimulant alcohol effects prime within session drinking behavior

“…Although this model has received considerable support, some have suggested that the low subjective response characteristic of individuals with a positive family history of alcoholism is restricted to the descending limb of the blood alcohol curve (Newlin and Thomson 1990). Further, there is evidence to suggest that a family history of alcoholism may actually be associated with a stronger response to alcohol as blood alcohol levels are rising (Kaplan et al 1983;Nagoshi and Wilson 1987).…”