title: The emerging pharmacology of ethanol.
abstract: Historically, alcohol (ethanol) has been viewed as a non-specific CNS depressant, presumed to act equally on all bioelectric membranes. In contrast to this view, cellular electrophysiological studies, supported by anatomic and neurochemical evidence, support the emergence of a more specific pharmacological profile. Four regions of the rodent brain (cerebellum, hippocampus, locus coeruleus and inferior olive) have so far been examined. The effects of acute parenteral ethanol on specific identifiable neurons within these four regions are highly consistent, dose-related, and spontaneously reversible. Nevertheless, different patterns of effects are seen in each responsive region, ranging from general increased firing in inferior olive to generally depressed synaptic transmission in hippocampus, and with more subtle effects within the cerebellum and within the locus ceruleus. This survey of consistent but differing patterns of responsiveness to ethanol at specific time points after acute exposure, suggests that the global effects of ethanol on movement, on arousal and on emotions and memory must be composed of several distinct effects both within and across many cellular systems.
authors.affiliation: Alcohol Research Center, Research Institute of Scripps Clinic, 10666 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, California 92037, USA Invited Guest Lecture, British Association for Psychopharmacology Summer Meeting, 12-15 July 1987, Jesus College, Cambridge, England.
authors.forename: F E
authors.initials: FE
authors.lastname: Bloom