Development and Pilot Validation of Computer‐Assisted Self‐Infusion of Ethanol (CASE): A New Method to Study Alcohol Self‐Administration in Humans

Abstract

These data suggest that CASE is practical and safe, and results in considerable alcohol exposure that can be manipulated with parameters chosen for the incremental exposure. Following 1 practice day, test-retest stability was good, suggesting a potential for use in scientific studies.

Offspring of parents with an alcohol use disorder prefer higher levels of brain alcohol exposure in experiments involving computer-assisted self-infusion of ethanol (CASE)

“…1). This finding is consistent with our earlier results (Zimmermann et al 2008), suggesting that a prior familiarization session reduces the noise attributable to user curiosity about i.v. alcohol self-infusion.…”

“…A notable difference, compared to our study, is that the peak BAC achieved was approximately half of that selfadministered in CASE, although all participants were alcohol-dependent active drinkers as opposed to nondependent social drinkers in our sample. Some putative reasons and their theoretical background were discussed earlier (Zimmermann et al 2008) and convince us that the CASE/ Freibier setup yields a more sensitive tool to detect factors modulating alcohol self-administration compared to oral self-administration.…”

“…The methods of CASE were the same as described recently (Zimmermann et al 2008). The general idea of the present protocol is that no work or payment is required to obtain alcohol; therefore we call this application of CASE the "Freibier" paradigm, which is the German expression for "free beers."…”

“…Due to the idiosyncrasies of enteral alcohol absorption, the time course of resulting aBAC and its maximum level varies up to threefold between subjects , making it extremely difficult to gain experimental control over self-administration studies. We recently described the method of computerassisted self-infusion of ethanol (CASE) and discussed why it might help to increase sensitivity of laboratory selfadministration studies (Zimmermann et al 2008). Here, we report on a pilot study testing the hypothesis that nondependent socially drinking FHP offspring of an alcohol-abusing or -dependent parent elect significantly greater voluntary brain exposure to alcohol than FHN controls when using the CASE setup instead of oral self-administration.…”

Alcohol-Induced Impairment of Inhibitory Control Is Linked to Attenuated Brain Responses in Right Fronto-Temporal Cortex

“…Alcohol consumption was measured using an established free-access ASA paradigm (cf, 43; 45). Participants were instructed to produce pleasant alcohol effects like they would at a party with alcohol available for free, but to avoid unpleasant alcohol effects.…”