Immediate and Prolonged Psychophysiological Effects of Sustained Alcohol Intake in Alcoholics

Abstract

The effects of 14 days of sustained alcohol intake were studied in 2 healthy male alcoholics, aged 39 and 40 years, with histories of 12 and 19 years of heavy drinking. Vodka (80 proof) was given 2 times a day in an amount equivalent to 1.8 ml of absolute alcohol/kg of body weight/ day (approximately a "fifth"/day). Heart rate and heart rate variability, skin resistance, finger pulse volume, electroencephalographic (eeg) alpha activity and rapid eye movements (REM) were measured. The results were considered in terms of both immediate alcohol effects and prolonged effects (11 hours to 7 days after drinking). The most salient immediate effects evidenced in both subjects were markedly increased eeg alpha activity and greater emission of REM; these were interpreted in terms of the "excitatory effects" of alcohol and their implication for alteration of affective status was suggested. Reliable increases in resting heart rate attributable to prolonged effects of alcohol ingestion were seen in both subjects. Enduring changes of this kind are distinctly different from the more extensively studied immediate effects of alcohol which are related to blood alcohol level. The influence of expectancy effects was ruled out as the cause of altered cardiovascular functioning, and the significance of psychological set or expectation of receiving alcohol was discussed. It was argued that an urgent need exists for controlled experimentation aimed at better understanding of prolonged alcohol effects and of the possible role that such psychophysiological changes may have in the maintenance of alcohol consummatory behavior.