Disinhibiting Effects Of Alcohol Research Articles

A Within-Person Examination of Alcohol-Involved and Non-Alcohol-Involved Internal and External Sexual Consent Communication.

External consent communication and internal consent feelings may be influenced by alcohol consumption. However, whether the way someone communicates sexual consent differs when alcohol is or is not involved is not well understood. The goal of this study was to assess the within- and between-person effects of alcohol use, gender, and sexual identity on internal and external consent. Young adults (n = 375) completed a 10-minute web-administered survey about their internal and external consent in a recent alcohol- and non-alcohol-involved sexual encounter. External consent included five different behaviors to communicate consent. We conducted a repeated-measures analysis of variance to assess the within- and between-person effects of alcohol use, gender, and sexual identity on internal and external consent. Internal consent did not differ across sexual experiences or identities. In alcohol-involved encounters, there was a decreased use of implicit communication. Heterosexual women used more verbal communication during alcohol encounters than during sober encounters. Compared with men, women used more nonverbal and implicit communication across encounters. Alcohol use did not influence internal consent and was associated with a reduced use of implicit communication. The disinhibiting effects of alcohol may lead people to feel more confident and open about expressing their sexual desires. Affirmative consent initiatives can use findings to encourage more clear communication and continue to educate on gender differences in sexual consent.

Acute rewarding and disinhibiting effects of alcohol as indicators of drinking habits

Laboratory studies have reliably shown that heightened sensitivity to the rewarding effects of alcohol is associated with heavier drinking patterns. More recently, there has been research to suggest that heightened sensitivity to the disinhibiting effects of alcohol might also contribute to drinking habits. Most research on the acute effects of alcohol has focused on drinking magnitudes averaged across participants with little attention paid to how individual differences influence alcohol abuse potential. In large part, this is due to limited sample sizes in previous laboratory studies. This study overcomes previous limitations by testing the degree to which individual differences in acute sensitivity and tolerance to the rewarding and disinhibiting effects of alcohol relate to drinking behavior in a large sample size. Data from six laboratory studies were aggregated to comprise a sample of 181 adults. Participants' level of "liking" (the effects of alcohol) and disinhibition were assessed following 0.65g/kg alcohol once during the ascending limb of the blood alcohol concentration (BAC) curve and again at the same BAC during the descending limb of the curve. The measures were also assessed following placebo. Alcohol increased ratings of liking and behavioral disinhibition. Heavier drinking was associated with heightened sensitivity to liking on the ascending limb. Additionally, those who showed reduced acute tolerance to both disinhibition and liking were also heavier drinkers. These data suggest that individual variability in liking the effects of alcohol and persistent disinhibition are key indicators of drinking habits.

Protracted impairment of impulse control under an acute dose of alcohol: A time-course analysis

Alcohol is well-known for impairing impulse control as well as its disruptive effects on other aspects of behavioral functioning, such as motor control. Time-course analyses during a single dose show rapid development of acute tolerance to impairment of motor coordination, reaction time, and levels of subjective intoxication, but no acute tolerance to impairment of the ability to inhibit responses. Evidence for a possible lag in tolerance development to the impairing effects of alcohol on inhibitory control suggests that, as drinkers' blood alcohol concentration (BAC) declines, they might exhibit prolonged impulsivity despite having an unimpaired ability to initiate action. The present study extended the time-course analysis to examine the recovery of inhibitory control under a dose of alcohol as drinkers' BAC descended from a peak of 80mg/100ml to a zero level. Twenty-four healthy adults were tested following 0.65g/kg alcohol and a placebo in a counterbalanced order. They performed a cued go/no-go task that measured response inhibition. They also performed tasks that assessed reaction time, motor coordination, and completed ratings of their subjective levels of intoxication. Alcohol initially impaired inhibitory control, response time, and motor coordination and increased subjective ratings of intoxication. However, acute tolerance to the impairing effects of alcohol was observed for measures of response time, motor coordination, and ratings of intoxication and these measures returned to sober (i.e., placebo) levels by the time BAC fell to near zero. By contrast, impairment of inhibitory control showed no acute tolerance and remained impaired even when drinkers' BAC returned to near zero. Taken together, these results indicate that the disinhibiting effects of alcohol are present even when the impairing effects of alcohol on other aspects of behavior have diminished under the dose. These findings could provide a greater understanding of impulsive behaviors during the descending limb of intoxication.

Acute alcohol impairs conditioning of a behavioural reward‐seeking response and inhibitory control processes—implications for addictive disorders

To investigate whether acute alcohol would affect performance of a conditioned behavioural response to obtain a reward outcome and impair performance in a task measuring inhibitory control to provide new knowledge of how the acute effects of alcohol might contribute to the transition from alcohol use to dependence. A randomized controlled between-subjects design was employed. The laboratory of experimental psychology at the University of Sussex. Thirty-two light to moderate social drinkers recruited from the undergraduate and postgraduate population. After the administration of alcohol (0.8 g/kg) or placebo participants underwent an instrumental reward-seeking procedure, with abstract stimuli serving as S+ (always predicting a win of 10 pence) and S- (always predicting a loss of 10 pence). In addition, a Stop Signal task was administered before and after the administration of alcohol. Participants of the alcohol group performed the behavioural response to obtain the reward outcome more often than placebo subjects in trials associated with loss of money. This finding was observed, although alcohol was not affecting explicit knowledge of stimulus-response outcome contingencies and acquisition of conditioned attentional and emotional responses. In addition, alcohol increased Stop Signal reaction time indicating disinhibiting effects of alcohol, and this was associated positively with response probability to the S-. These results demonstrate that alcohol is affecting inhibitory control of behavioural responses to external signals even when associated with punishment, contributing in this way to the transition from alcohol use to dependence.

Disinhibition and Risk Compensation

Disinhibition and Risk Compensation

Gender differences in alcohol's disinhibiting effects: a commentary on Fillmore and Weafer.

Fillmore & Weafer (2004) present some very interesting and potentially important results suggesting that men are more susceptible than women to both the disinhibiting and stimulating effects of a moderate dose of alcohol. Research suggests that men are more susceptible than women to the disinhibiting effects of alcohol on aggression (Giancola & Zeichner 1995; Giancola et al. 2002), and, it has been well documented that men drink more and have more alcohol-related problems than women (Williams et al. 1989; Finn & Hall 2004). The present results suggest a potential mechanism that might contribute to these important gender differences. Alcohol may compromise inhibitory control of certain processes in men more than women, resulting in a tendency for men to consume more drinks on a single occasion than women, and a tendency for men to be more aggressive than women when intoxicated. Although the gender differences observed by Fillmore and Weafer make sense given the known gender differences in excessive alcohol use and alcohol-related problems, a number of questions need to be systematically addressed to establish the reliability of these effects. The first word of caution stems from the small sample size used in this study. Larger sample sizes are necessary to ensure that the observed gender differences are not just an oddity of the small sample. Furthermore, if these are true gender differences then it is important to assess whether they are reliable across time, dose level, blood alcohol concentration limb location, risk-status, and context. In fact, systematic study of the reliability and correlates of gender differences in the disinhibiting effects of alcohol would be helpful in uncovering the mechanisms responsible for this effect, if it is a true effect, and their relevance for broader gender differences in alcohol consumption and problems. If the differences are observed only at specific dosage levels or in specific contexts, then this might clarify some of the mechanisms underlying this effect. The authors discuss this issue to some degree when noting that gender differences in the disinhibiting effects of alcohol have not been observed on some inhibitory control tasks, such as the the stop-signal task (Mulvihill, Skilling & Vogel-Sprott 1997). We also have not observed gender differences in the disinhibiting effect of alcohol on a different go/no-go task that uses monetary incentives and punishments to activate or inhibit behavior (Finn et al. 1999). Gender differences also might vary in relation to risk status. For instance, while moderate drinking women appear to have significantly fewer alcohol problems than moderate drinking men, heavy drinking women appear to have equal or more alcohol-related problems than heavy-drinking men (Wilsnack, Wilsnack & Klassen 1984), suggesting that heavy drinking women may be more disinhibited than heavy-drinking men. Finally, the authors offer an interesting speculation that the gender differences in alcohol's stimulating effects may contribute to the observed differences in alcohol's disinhibiting effect. This is intuitively appealing speculation, but the authors can directly test this speculation by assessing whether alcohol-induced decreases in response inhibition are correlated with alcohol-induced increases in subjective stimulation. In summary, the gender differences in alcohol's disinhibiting effect observed by Fillmore and Weafer are potentially important and may have relevance for gender differences in alcohol consumption and problems. However, it is important to systematically study these effects in larger samples that vary in risk status while using different tasks, doses, and contexts. Such work will be very valuable to our understanding of broader gender differences in alcohol use and abuse and the mechanisms contributing to these differences.

Alcohol and Behavioral Control: Cognitive and Neural Mechanisms

This article represents the proceedings of a symposium at the 2000 RSA Meeting in Denver, Colorado. The organizer/chair was Muriel Vogel-Sprott. The presentations were (1) Alcohol-induced impairment of inhibitory control: Some commonalities with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, by Mark Fillmore; (2) Neural interactions that underlie response inhibition under alcohol: A functional magnetic resonance imaging investigation, by Craig Easdon; (3) Intentional control of behavior under alcohol, by Muriel Vogel-Sprott; and (4) Working memory and the disinhibiting effects of alcohol on passive avoidance learning, by Alicia Justius and Peter Finn.

Alcohol and Behavioral Control: Cognitive and Neural Mechanisms

This article represents the proceedings of a symposium at the 2000 RSA Meeting in Denver, Colorado. The organizer/chair was Muriel Vogel-Sprott. The presentations were (1) Alcohol-induced impairment of inhibitory control: Some commonalities with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, by Mark Fillmore; (2) Neural interactions that underlie response inhibition under alcohol: A functional magnetic resonance imaging investigation, by Craig Easdon; (3) Intentional control of behavior under alcohol, by Muriel Vogel-Sprott; and (4) Working memory and the disinhibiting effects of alcohol on passive avoidance learning, by Alicia Justius and Peter Finn.

ALCOHOL, SEX AND AIDS

The association between alcohol consumption and AIDS risks is examined. It is concluded that chronic heavy drinking or alcohol consumption levels consistent with alcohol dependence or alcohol-related liver disease does damage the immune system. In addition alcohol consumption influences sexual behaviour for a variety of psychological, social and physical reasons. Attention is focused on the disinhibiting effects of alcohol and the popular belief that drinking may be used to facilitate or excuse otherwise unacceptable behaviour. Several studies indicate that alcohol consumption is associated with 'high risk' sexual behaviour. Accordingly drinking appears to be a risk factor for potential exposure to HIV infection and for relapse into 'high risk' sexual activities. Evidence does not support the conclusion that alcohol is a cofactor in the course of AIDS-related illnesses.