title: Alcohol-induced heart rate response dampening during aversive and rewarding stress paradigms in subjects at risk for alcoholism.
abstract: Individuals with a family history of alcoholism (FH+) are at risk to develop alcohol problems. In several studies, psychophysiological stress responses were more attenuated by alcohol in FH+ than in FH- subjects. However, it is not clear from these studies, if this stronger stress-response dampening effect of alcohol (SRD) in FH+ subjects is confined to aversive stimuli, or would hold for nonaversive stress conditions as well. Also, male and female FH+ subjects seem to respond differently to the alcohol challenge, but have rarely been directly compared in a SRD paradigm. Participants were 54 female and 63 male healthy adults; 31 women were daughters (DOAs) and 40 men were sons (SOAs) of alcohol-dependent fathers. The remaining 23 women (DONAs) and 23 men (SONAs) had no FH of any alcohol use disorder. The participants took part in two laboratory sessions, one with and one without alcohol. In each session, three stressor procedures were presented. Heart rate is the main dependent variable in this report. SOAs, but not SONAs showed a tendency towards SRD. Among female participants, a strong SRD occurred, but contrary to our expectation only in controls. Stress responses and SRD effects were somewhat stronger in the aversive than in the rewarding task. The extent of alcohol induced SRD was strongly influenced by BAL and the amplitude of the stress response in the no-alcohol condition (multiple regression analysis). Thus, aversive tasks might have the advantage of eliciting stronger stress responses than rewarding tasks, thereby providing better conditions for observing differences in alcohol induced SRD between FH+ and FH- subjects.
authors.affiliation: Central Institute of Mental Health, University of Heidelberg, J5, D-68159 Mannheim, Germany. croissant@zi-mannheim.de
authors.forename: Bernhard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Croissant
authors.forename: Fred
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rist
authors.forename: Ralf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Demmel
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Olbrich
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D032721:Adult Children; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000523:psychology; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000235:genetics*; D001143:Arousal / Q000187:drug effects*; D001288:Attention / Q000187:drug effects; D000431:Ethanol / Q000097:blood / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005246:Feedback; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000187:drug effects*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011340:Problem Solving / Q000187:drug effects; D011678:Punishment; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000187:drug effects; D012201:Reward; D012306:Risk; D012737:Sex Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology
chemical_list: D000431:Ethanol