Alcohol's Mind-Bending Toll

Studies spot trouble for recovering alcoholics, those with family history of drinking

THURSDAY, Aug. 15, 2002 (HealthDayNews) -- Two new studies about alcohol and alcoholism confirm what clinicians and some researchers have long suspected:

Drinkers with a family history of alcoholism are more likely to develop a tolerance for alcohol, and detoxified alcoholics are likely to have difficulties with memory and problem-solving.

In the study looking at tolerance, Sandra Morzorati, a researcher at the Indiana University School of Medicine, and her colleagues administered intravenous alcohol to 58 subjects with a family history of the disease and 58 people without a family history.

She found those with a family history reported greater feelings of intoxication than those without a family history, even though both groups were given the same amount of alcohol. Those with a family history also developed tolerance to alcohol quickly.

"They adapted to the amount of alcohol and [soon] felt less intoxicated on the same amount," she explains. So, to recapture the intoxicated feeling, she speculates, these people might go on to drink more.

While other researchers have evaluated the same phenomenon, with conflicting results, Morzorati says her study is believed to be the first to use a method of alcohol administration (called the breath alcohol level clamp) that ensures that breath alcohol levels remain constant throughout the study.

"We've eliminated the confounds of real life," says Morzorati, whose study appears in the August issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.

In another study, reported in the same journal, Andrea C. King, a researcher at the University of Chicago, and her colleagues studied problem-solving ability and memory in 48 alcoholics receiving inpatient treatment and 30 subjects without a drinking problem.

They found that alcoholics who were no longer drinking had impaired reactions to the stress of performing the tests, as evidenced by their blunted release of the stress hormone cortisol, and they did more poorly than the non-alcoholic subjects.

In general, King explains, it has been found that alcoholics who still drink have high levels of cortisol and that levels remain high during the withdrawal period, which is usually stressful. "Then they stabilize," she says.

At the point in the study when King's team measured the cortisol levels in the non-drinking alcoholics, they had abnormally low levels of cortisol, not sufficient to rise to the mental challenge of the tests.

"The lower cortisol levels were associated with more errors in problem solving and more memory difficulties," King says.

The take-home points? Those who drink heavily and then quit might have impaired cortisol responses, she says. That could translate to difficulties with routine tasks, such as remembering names or how to get to places.

The key point from the tolerance study, Morzorati says, is that those with a family history of alcoholism should be aware of the greater intoxicated feeling they might experience and their tendency to develop tolerance. They should also try "not to drink in response to stress," she says.

Both findings seem to lend credence to what has been observed for years in clinical practice, says Arthur Tom Horvath, a San Diego psychologist who specializes in the treatment of addictive behaviors.

"It's really not a surprise to anybody that alcohol damages you," Horvath says of the study finding impaired mental abilities.

The tolerance study, he adds, should not cause those with a family history of alcoholism to feel doomed.

"Two things I tell my patients," he says. "If you have a family history, you will probably enjoy alcohol more. And you have a greater natural tolerance. If you develop tolerance, you are more likely to develop problems."

However, it's not a given, he says. "Most people with a family history do not develop alcohol problems," he says.

What To Do

For information on whether alcohol reduces stress, see the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Addiction. For information on alcohol, click here.

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