Psychosomatic Medicine 28:1-12 (1966)
© 1966 American Psychosomatic Society

Comparative Psychophysiological Studies of Alcoholic and Nonalcoholic Subjects Undergoing Experimentally Induced Ethanol Intoxication

¹ Stanley Cobb Laboratories for Psychiatric Research, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass.

Four nonalcoholic and 4 alcoholic subjects were studied under metabolic ward conditions before, while, and after they underwent experimentally induced ethanol intoxication. Behavioral and psychophysiological findings obtained from each group are compared and contrasted. Nonalcoholic subjects showed aversive behavioral responses to drinking and developed gastrointestinal signs and symptoms during the drinking phase of the experiment. The alcoholic subjects showed no aversive behavioral or psychophysiological responses while drinking. Significant changes in rate of C¹⁴ ethanol metabolism following drinking were found in both groups, but the nonalcoholics tended to have lower rates of C¹⁴ ethanol metabolism prior to drinking. Findings of this experiment suggest that neural, gastrointestinal, and metabolic adaptational processes occur in alcoholics which differentiate them from nonalcoholic subjects.

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