Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research
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Alcohol. Clin. Exp. Res. · Mar 2012
Randomized Controlled TrialText-message-based drinking assessments and brief interventions for young adults discharged from the emergency department.
Brief interventions have the potential to reduce heavy drinking in young adults who present to the emergency department (ED), but require time and resources rarely available. Text-messaging (TM) may provide an effective way to collect drinking data from young adults after ED discharge as well as to provide immediate feedback and ongoing support for behavior change. The feasibility of screening young adults in the ED, recruiting them for a TM-based interventional trial, collecting weekly drinking data through TM, and the variance in drinking outcomes remains unknown. ⋯ TM can be used to assess drinking in young adults and can deliver brief interventions to young adults discharged from the ED. TM-based interventions have the potential to reduce heavy drinking among young adults but larger studies are needed to establish efficacy.
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Alcohol. Clin. Exp. Res. · Mar 2012
Randomized Controlled TrialRandomized controlled trial of mailed personalized feedback for problem drinkers in the emergency department: the short-term impact.
Evidence exists for the efficacy of emergency department (ED)-based brief alcohol interventions, but attempts to incorporate face-to-face interventions into routine ED practice have been hampered by time, financial, and attitudinal constraints. Mailed personalized feedback, which is likely to be more feasible, has been associated with reduced alcohol consumption in other settings, but its cost-effectiveness in the ED has not been examined. ⋯ Mailed personalized feedback is efficacious in reducing quantity/frequency of alcohol consumption among patients with alcohol-involved ED presentations. Mailed feedback has high cost-efficacy and a low absolute cost, making it a promising candidate for integration into ED care.
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Alcohol. Clin. Exp. Res. · Feb 2012
Review Meta AnalysisAlcohol dehydrogenase-1B Arg47His polymorphism and upper aerodigestive tract cancer risk: a meta-analysis including 24,252 subjects.
Cancers of the upper aerodigestive tract (UADT) include malignant tumors of the oral cavity, pharynx, larynx, and esophagus, account for approximately 4% of all new cancers in world. Alcohol drinking is an established risk factor for UADT cancers, and the rate of alcohol metabolism could significantly been influenced by genetic polymorphisms of alcohol dehydrogenase-1B (ADH1B) His47Arg (rs1229984). To evaluate whether combined evidence shows ADH1B His47Arg as a common genetic variant that influenced the risk of UADT cancers, we considered all available studies in a meta-analysis. ⋯ ADH1B 47Arg allele is a common genetic variant that increased the risk of UADT cancers; furthermore, it modulates the susceptibility to UADT cancers coupled with alcohol drinking and interaction with the ALDH2 487Lys allele.
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Alcohol. Clin. Exp. Res. · Dec 2011
Positron emission tomography imaging of mu- and delta-opioid receptor binding in alcohol-dependent and healthy control subjects.
The endogenous opioid system plays a significant role in alcohol dependence. The goal of the current study was to investigate regional brain mu-opioid receptor (MOR) and delta-opioid receptor (DOR) availability in recently abstinent alcohol-dependent and age-matched healthy control men and women with positron emission tomography (PET) imaging. ⋯ Our observation of higher [(11)C]CFN BP(ND) in alcohol-dependent subjects can result from up-regulation of MOR and/or reduction in endogenous opioid peptides following long-term alcohol consumption, dependence, and/or withdrawal. Alternatively, the higher [(11)C]CFN BP(ND) in alcohol-dependent subjects may be an etiological difference that predisposed these individuals to alcohol dependence or may have developed as a result of increased exposure to childhood adversity, stress, and other environmental factors known to increase MOR. Although the direction of group differences in [(11)C]MeNTL BP(ND) was similar in many brain regions, differences did not achieve statistical significance, perhaps as a result of our limited sample size. Additional research is needed to further clarify these relationships. The finding that alcohol-dependent subjects had higher [(11)C]CFN BP(ND) is consistent with a prominent role of the MOR in alcohol dependence.
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Alcohol. Clin. Exp. Res. · Nov 2011
Alteration of ethanol drinking in mice via modulation of the GABA(A) receptor with ganaxolone, finasteride, and gaboxadol.
Neurosteroids and other γ-aminobutyric acid(A) (GABA(A) ) receptor-modulating compounds have been shown to affect ethanol intake, although their mechanism remains unclear. This study examined how patterns of 24-hour ethanol drinking in mice were altered with the synthetic GABAergic neurosteroid ganaxolone (GAN), with an inhibitor of neurosteroid synthesis (finasteride [FIN]), or a GABA(A) receptor agonist with some selectivity at extrasynaptic receptors (gaboxadol HCL [THIP]). ⋯ The present findings support a role for the modulation of ethanol intake by neurosteroids and GABA(A) receptor-acting compounds and provide hints as to how drinking patterns are shifted. The ability of THIP to alter 10E drinking suggests that extrasynaptic GABA(A) receptors may be involved in the modulation of ethanol intake. Further, the consistent results with THIP to that seen previously with high doses of ALLO suggest that future studies should further examine the relationship between neurosteroids and extrasynaptic GABA(A) receptors, which could provide a better understanding of the mechanism by which neurosteroids influence ethanol intake.