Clinical implications of tolerance to alcohol in nondependent young drinkers.
BACKGROUND
Ten percent of teenagers and young adults with no alcohol diagnosis and a third of those with alcohol abuse report tolerance to alcohol. However, relatively few data are available on the clinical implications of tolerance in nondependent men and women.


METHODS
Data were gathered from 649 18-to-22-year-old drinking offspring from the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA) families. The prevalence and clinical correlates of tolerance were evaluated across subjects with no DSM-IV alcohol abuse and no tolerance, similar individuals with tolerance, subjects with alcohol abuse but no tolerance, and individuals with both alcohol abuse and tolerance.


RESULTS
Tolerance was associated with an almost doubling of the number of drinks needed to feel alcohol's effects, and correlated with additional alcohol-related problems. In regression analyses, the most consistent and robust correlates of tolerance were the maximum number of drinks and alcohol problems, and tolerance remained informative after covarying for drinking quantity.


CONCLUSIONS
Tolerance to alcohol may be a useful concept regarding nondependent drinkers that is not just a proxy for alcohol quantity but also reflects the presence of additional problems.
Schuckit
Marc A
MA
Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego 92161-2002, USA. mschuckit@ucsd.edu
Smith
Tom L
TL
Hesselbrock
Victor
V
Bucholz
Kathleen K
KK
Bierut
Laura
L
Edenberg
Howard
H
Kramer
John
J
Longacre
Elizabeth
E
Fukukura
Tsutomu
T
Kalmijn
Jelger
J
Danko
George P
GP
Trim
Ryan
R
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D004361:Drug Tolerance; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D015995:Prevalence; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012306:Risk; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology