title: Discriminative stimulus effects of alcohol in humans.
abstract: The discriminative stimulus effects of alcohol were examined in 11 healthy moderate alcohol users. Study days occurred 5 days per week for 12-25 total days. Each day, participants completed visual-analog reports of drug effect and drug-discrimination tasks at 30-min intervals for 2.5 h following oral alcohol administration. Participants completed three phases. During the training phase, which occurred on the first 4 study days, participants were trained to discriminate color-coded placebo and alcohol doses (0 vs. 0.45 g per liter of body water (g/lbw)). Participants then completed a control phase, during which accurate drug-discrimination performance was verified. Finally, participants completed a testing phase, during which both training and intermediate doses (0.15 and 0.30 g/lbw) were administered. During the testing phase, 25 and 100% of responses occurred on the alcohol key at the 0- and 0.45-g/lbw doses, respectively, indicating that discrimination responding remained intact. At the low dose (0.15 g/lbw), 25% of the subjects responded on the alcohol key, whereas 75% of the subjects responded on the alcohol key at the moderate dose (0.30 g/lbw), indicating dose-related generalization to the training doses. These results confirm cross-species generality in the discriminative stimulus effects of alcohol, and further establishes the utility of human laboratory drug-discrimination procedures for analysis of the functional effects of alcohol.
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioral Science, College of Medicine, University of Kentucky, Lexington 40536-0086, USA. THKELLY@POP.UKY.edu
authors.forename: T H
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Kelly
authors.forename: C S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Emurian
authors.forename: B J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Baseheart
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Martin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect / Q000187:drug effects; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000523:psychology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003463:Cues; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D000431:Ethanol / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male
chemical_list: D000431:Ethanol