Alcohol

Issues Available Online

HALEEM, D.J., NAZ, H., PARVEEN, T., HAIDER, S., AHMED, S.P., KHAN, N.H. AND HALEEM, M.A.    Serotonin and Serotonin 1-A Receptors in the Failure of Ethanol-Treated Rats to Adapt to a Repeated Stress Schedule

Objective: The effects of repeated-restraint stress on brain 5-hydroxytryptamine; serotonin (5-HT) metabolism and functional responses to a selective 5-HT-1A agonist, 8-hydroxy-2-(di-n-propylamino) tetralin (8-OH-DPAT), are compared in water- and ethanol-treated rats. Method: Locally bred male water- or ethanol-treated rats restrained 2 hours per day for 6 days were killed, and whole brains were collected for the neurochemical analysis by high performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection (HPLC-EC). In a separate experiment 8-OH-DPAT was injected in water- and ethanol-treated rats to compare elicited hyperactivity syndrome (a postsynaptic response) and effectiveness of the drug in reducing brain 5-HT synthesis (a presynaptic response). Results: A single episode of 2-hour restraint stress decreased 24-hour cumulative food intake in both water- and ethanol-treated rats. Following repeated restraint stress of 2 hours per day for 5 days, the decreases were present in ethanol- but not water-treated rats. The sixth episode of 2-hour restraint stress did not alter brain tryptophan 5-HT and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) concentrations in water- treated repeatedly restrained rats but decreased tryptophan and increased 5-HT concentration in ethanol-treated rats. Ethanol-treated unrestrained and ethanol-treated repeatedly restrained rats exhibited higher levels of tryptophan 5-HT and 5-HIAA than their respective water-treated controls. Injecting 8-OH-DPAT at a dose of 0.25 mg/kg elicited comparable hyperactivity syndrome in water- and ethanol-treated rats but decreased 5-HT synthesis more in ethanol-treated than in water-treated rats. Conclusions: The present study shows that ethanol administration for 2 to 3 weeks, although it increases brain 5-HT metabolism, impairs adaptation by increasing the effectiveness of negative feedback control over 5-HT synthesis. (J. Stud. Alcohol 63: 389-396, 2002)

MAISTO, S.A., CLIFFORD, P.R., LONGABAUGH, R. AND BEATTIE, M.    The Relationship between Abstinence for One Year Following Pretreatment Assessment and Alcohol Use and Other Functioning at Two Years in Individuals Presenting for Alcohol Treatment

Objective: The purpose of this study was to replicate and extend research that shows abstinence from alcohol during the first year following treatment predicts better longer term functioning in alcohol use and other areas. Method: The subjects were 187 men and women who had participated in a clinical trial of the differential effectiveness of two behavioral treatments for alcohol problems as a function of subject characteristics. All subjects who participated in this phase of the study were classified as either abstinent from alcohol or not based on their drinking behavior during the first 12 months following treatment initiation. SubjectsÕ alcohol use and other behaviors were evaluated for Months 13-24. The primary dependent variables of interest were alcohol use, self-efficacy, and psychological functioning. Results: A comparison of the two abstinence groups showed that abstainers, compared to drinkers, had less alcohol use, higher self-efficacy, and better psychological functioning. Conclusions: The results suggest the association is robust between abstinence during the first year following treatment initiation or cessation and later functioning, and extend this finding to include psychological functioning. Future research should focus on possible mediators of the abstinence correlations with later behavior that are of theoretical and practical importance, and on specifying gradients of duration of abstinence or other drinking patterns reflecting improvement and their relationship to longer term functioning. (J. Stud. Alcohol 63: 397-403, 2002)

FOGARTY, J.N. AND VOGEL-SPROTT, M.    Cognitive Processes and Motor Skills Differ in Sensitivity to Alcohol Impairment

Objective: Research reviews have suggested that cognitive and motor skills are not equally sensitive to a moderate dose of alcohol; they disagree, however, on which type of task is more sensitive to impairment. This issue is addressed in two experiments testing a cognitive and a motor skill task performed by the same person at comparable blood alcohol concentrations (BACs) during a moderate dose of alcohol. Method: A motor skill task (PR) and a rapid information processing (RIP) task requiring no learned motor skill were performed in counterbalanced order, and tests on the pair of tasks occurred at intervals as BAC rose and declined. In the first experiment, two groups of male social drinkers (each n = 10) received either a moderate dose of alcohol (0.62 g/kg) or placebo and performed the tasks with no consequence for performance. The second experiment comprised four groups (each n = 14) to verify and extend the results to a situation in which unimpaired performance under alcohol was rewarded on one or both tasks. Results: In both experiments, impairment on the PR task tended to increase and diminish with rising and declining BACs, whereas impairment on the RIP task showed no such pattern. Reinforcement reduced the degree of impairment displayed on each task, but the different task profiles of impairment were still evident. Conclusions: The results indicate how disagreement over the sensitivity of cognitive and motor skills to a moderate dose of alcohol may occur when impairment is only assessed at some particular BACs. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed. (J. Stud. Alcohol 63: 404-411, 2002)

RICHMAN, J.A., SHINSAKO, S.A., ROSPENDA, K.M., FLAHERTY, J.A. AND FREELS, S.    Workplace Harassment/Abuse and Alcohol-Related Outcomes: The Mediating Role of Psychological Distress

Objective: This article embraces a tension-reduction or self-medication perspective on alcohol use and misuse. It empirically addresses the role that psychological distress plays in mediating the relationships between harassing and abusive interpersonal experiences in the workplace and altered alcohol use and misuse. Method: A mail survey was completed by 2,038 university employees (1,098 women and 940 men) at two points in time. Specific hypotheses were tested involving (1) the extent to which the onset and chronicity of harassment and abuse predicted varied Wave-2 drinking outcomes, (2) the extent to which the onset and chronicity of harassment and abuse predicted three forms of Wave-2 psychological distress, (3) the associations between Wave-2 psychological distress and drinking outcomes and (4) the extent to which the associations between harassment/abuse and drinking outcomes disappeared when the salient forms of symptomatic distress functioned as control variables. Results: The data showed that harassment and abuse predicted drinking outcomes and psychological distress, and that the associations between harassment/abuse and drinking outcomes were partially mediated by distress. Conclusions: The findings lend support to the tension-reduction perspective and have important implications for intervention and prevention involving workplace harassment and abuse. (J. Stud. Alcohol 63: 412-419, 2002)

DELANEY, W.P., GRUBE, J.W., RAGLAND, D.R., GREINER, B. AND FISHER, J.M.    Job Stress, Unwinding and Drinking in Transit Operators

Objective: This study tests the spillover model of the effects of work stress on after-work drinking, using the variable Òlength of time to unwindÓ as a mediator. Method: A total of 1,974 transit operators were contacted and 1,553 (79%) of them participated in a personal interview. Complete data on the variables in this analysis were available for 1,208 respondents (84% men). Using latent variable structural equation modeling, a model was tested that predicted that daily job problems, skipped meals and less social support from supervisor would increase alcohol consumption through the mediator, length of time to unwind and relax after work. Increased alcohol consumption was, in turn, hypothesized to increase drinking problems. Results: As predicted, skipped meals and daily job problems increased length of time to unwind and had an indirect positive relationship with overall drinking, even when controlling for drinking norms and demographic variables. Overall drinking was positively associated with drinking problems. Supervisor support at work, however, did not significantly influence length of time to unwind. Difficulty unwinding (longer time to unwind) did not have direct effects on drinking problems; however, indirect effects through overall drinking were observed. Conclusions: These results provide preliminary support for the mediating role of length of time to unwind and relax after work in a spillover model of the stress-drinking relationship. This research introduces a new mediator and empirical links between job problems, length of time to unwind, drinking and drinking problems, which ground more substantively the domains of work stress and alcohol consumption. (J. Stud. Alcohol 63: 420-429, 2002)