Posted by Larry Hoover on June 5, 2003, at 8:00:27
In reply to Within ALCOHOL may lie the answer, posted by Michael Bell on June 4, 2003, at 21:46:15
> In my own experience (someone with severe social phobia, now controlled for the most part), a few beers on their own are superior to any drug or supplement I've ever tried.
> This gives me hope. It means that there is a known substance that totally defeats social phobia, and one of the oldest beverages on earth no less. The question is, how do we gain the positive effects of alcohol without the negative. Are scientists studying what the exact neurochemical effects of alcohol are?
I spent a lot of time on this subject, because I have alcohol abuse both in my individual and in my family history. I wanted to understand some the motives (inferred) why I used it, so that I might, as you suggest, find alternative methods to satisfy the same motives.
My conclusion first. I don't think that there is a way to derive any similar effect as the effect of alcohol. Alcohol causes an acute disturbance in the balance of the brain's functioning. I used the words disturbance and balance because alcohol distorts the normal relationships between the activity of the neurotransmitters, and in some respects, induces a response which would ordinarily be triggered by experiencing a rewarding event, rather than by the ingestion of a toxicant.
Alcohol's effect on neurotransmitter activity has been well-studied. I don't think there's a known neurotransmitter that is not affected by alcohol use.
The primary and dominant effects of alcohol use are upon serotonin, dopamine, and GABA. There is a generalized flood of serotonin, which remains depleted for a significant time after alcohol use. Dopamine is released into the reward pathway. Ethanol is a direct agonist of GABA receptors.
Two further issues which bear on alcohol use are timing and dose. It takes a significant period of time (weeks, probably) between uses of alcohol for the brain to escape the regulatory effects of alcohol; alcohol use desensitizes the neurotransmitter receptors most responsible for the feel-good effects. And, as for dose, I don't think too much explanation is necessary.
There is some evidence that subsequent alcohol use does not have the same effect as the first use. In heroin addiction, there's a term "chasing the dragon", by which some mean the repetitive but unsuccessful attempts to recapture the "virgin" response to using heroin. I think alcohol has a virgin effect, too. How long does it take for *your* brain to "reload" its neurotransmitters, and re-adjust its receptors?
Bizarre as it may seem, much of the effect of alcohol is also a learned response. There is a significant effect of cognition, as discovered when experimental subjects were led to believe they were consuming alcohol, when in fact, there was virtually none in their drinks. The drinks were actually fruit juice, with a few drops of alcohol added to the surface of the drink just before serving, to give the "nose" of a mixed drink (the subjects had been told they were going to get vodka and OJ). Despite the near-absence of alcohol, the group showed the same pro-social activities we associate with ethanol intoxication, and after the "appropriate" number of drinks were consumed, some even developed physical symptoms of ethanol intoxication. All through suggestion.
To come back to the conclusion again.....I don't believe you can mimic the effects of alcohol, without involving substitute intoxicants. And, based on some of your own words, I'm a little concerned that you may show some of the attitudes towards drinking that may predispose towards alcohol abuse. The latter is a precautionary statement, not a judgment. Just beware.
Lar
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:231507
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030604/msgs/231575.html