Alcohol-predictive cues enhance tolerance to and precipitate "craving" for alcohol in social drinkers.
This study attempts to show that tolerance to alcohol is in large part a "learned" response, precipitated by contextual cues predictive of the unconditional drug effect. It also aims to show that the contextual cues integral to such "environment-dependent" tolerance function to increase motivational desire to drink alcohol. Male students (N = 40), drinking on average 10-20 units of alcohol per week, were randomly assigned to one of four groups. Two groups ingested 1.2ml/kg alcohol: one (AL-EXPT) with exteroceptive contextual cues typically associated with alcohol use, and the other (AL-UNEXPT) in a context not normally associated with alcohol. A third group (placebo) believed that they were drinking alcohol but, in fact, consumed a nonalcoholic beverage in the alcohol-expected context. The fourth group drank juice in the alcohol-unexpected context. As predicted, tolerance to the deleterious effects of alcohol on cognition and motor-performance, and subjective desire to consume alcohol, were influenced by the alcohol-predictive contextual cues. A physiological index (pulse rate) also tended to confirm that these cues elicited a conditioned compensatory response to alcohol. The implications of these findings for tolerance to and motivation to drink alcohol in a nonpathological population are discussed.
McCusker
C G
CG
Department of Psychology, Queens University, Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Brown
K
K
D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000523:psychology*; D000435:Alcoholic Intoxication / Q000523:psychology; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000523:psychology*; D001143:Arousal / Q000187:drug effects; D001288:Attention / Q000187:drug effects; D003463:Cues; D004361:Drug Tolerance; D000431:Ethanol / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000187:drug effects; D012718:Set, Psychology; D012919:Social Behavior; D012931:Social Environment
D000431:Ethanol