Drinking behavior in laboratory and barroom settings

Alcohol-Seeking Triggered by Discrete Pavlovian Cues is Invigorated by Alcohol Contexts and Mediated by Glutamate Signaling in the Basolateral Amygdala

The environmental context in which a discrete Pavlovian conditioned stimulus (CS) is experienced can profoundly impact conditioned responding elicited by the CS. We hypothesized that alcohol-seeking behavior elicited by a discrete CS that predicted alcohol would be influenced by context and require glutamate signaling in the basolateral amygdala (BLA). Male, Long-Evans rats were allowed to drink 15% ethanol (v/v) until consumption stabilized. Next, rats received Pavlovian conditioning sessions in which a 10 s CS (15 trials/session) was paired with ethanol (0.2 ml/CS). Entries into a port where ethanol was delivered were measured. Pavlovian conditioning occurred in a specific context (alcohol context) and was alternated with sessions in a different context (non-alcohol context) where neither the CS nor ethanol was presented. At test, the CS was presented without ethanol in the alcohol context or the non-alcohol context, following a bilateral microinfusion (0.3 μl/hemisphere) of saline or the AMPA glutamate receptor antagonist NBQX (2,3-dioxo-6-nitro-1,2,3,4-tetrahydrobenzo[f]quinoxaline-7-sulfonamide disodium salt) in the BLA (0, 0.3, or 1.0 μg/0.3 μl). The effect of NBQX (0, 0.3 μg/0.3 μl) in the caudate putamen (CPu) on CS responding in the non-alcohol context was also tested. The discrete alcohol CS triggered more alcohol-seeking behavior in the alcohol context than the non-alcohol context. NBQX in the BLA reduced CS responding in both contexts but had no effect in the CPu. These data indicate that AMPA glutamate receptors in the BLA are critical for alcohol-seeking elicited by a discrete CS and that behavior triggered by the CS is strongly invigorated by an alcohol context.

Informing a realistic laboratory erosion-testing regime--observations

OBJECTIVES

To measure aspects of fizzy drink consumption in a social environment to inform the development of a laboratory testing regime.

METHODS

This was an observational study in which participants were invited to attend one of four pizza and soft drink parties. All such foods and drinks were served in an air conditioned room at a temperature of 24°C. All drinks were at a temperature of 4°C and each participant was asked to spit out, into graduated cups, their first and second sips. Both the temperature and volume of these were measured. Upon completion of the party the volume of drinks consumed was determined. Video footage of the experiment was recorded for subsequent analysis to determine sip count and the elapsed time period between first and last sip. These values were compared to the analogous measured value of expectorated volume in order to assess the usefulness of video observation in the context of this work.

RESULTS

The mean expectorated beverage temperature was 14.9±2.0°C. The mean time spent drinking was 44.2±17.4 minutes with a mean consumption rate of 13.3±6.0 ml/min. Only the sip volume and sip count per can values were significantly different between sexes (P<0.05) with females displaying lower values for volume and a higher sip count. There was close agreement between the sip volume values observed and calculated using video observation derived parameters.

CONCLUSIONS

Several human drinking behaviour values were reported in this study and these will be of value in the development of more realistic laboratory erosion-testing regimes. It is concluded, within the limitations of this work, that (1) there are differences in the drinking behaviour of males and females with respect to sip volume and count, (2) the intraoral rise in temperature of a 4°C beverage is lower than that used in previous laboratory simulations and (3) the values derived from video observation agree with those measured directly validating this technique for use in further studies.

CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE

The work provides valuable quantitative data on which to base simulated laboratory erosion work. Perhaps the most significant finding is that sipped beverages attain a temperature of only 14.9°C.

The influence of setting on consumption in the balanced placebo design

Previous research using the balanced placebo design has demonstrated that instructions about alcohol content of a beverage affect consumption more than actual alcohol content. In the present experiment the balanced placebo design was expanded to include a dimension of context. The design was a 2 x 2 x 2 factorial with expectancy about alcohol content, actual alcohol content, and setting in which the experiment was conducted as factors. The setting factor involved conducting the experiment either in a laboratory setting typical of most balanced placebo research or in an actual bar-room. Results obtained in the laboratory setting replicated the basic finding that subjects consumed more beverage when they believed it contained alcohol than when they believed it did not contain alcohol, regardless of actual alcohol content. Consumption in the bar-room setting was higher than in the laboratory setting, and most importantly, consumption was not differentially affected by instruction about alcohol content or actual alcohol content. These results demonstrate the important role of setting on beverage consumption, and suggest the need to investigate factors thought to affect consumption in natural drinking environments.

Women and alcohol: cross-cultural perspectives

A review of the worldwide literature about women and alcohol contradicts many stereotypes and raises some new questions, interpretations, and practical implications. Norms, values, attitudes, and expectations may be at least as important as physiological differences between the sexes with respect to patterns of drinking and their outcomes. Women have been drinking as long as men have throughout history, and they drink about as often as men in many cultures; in a few instances, they even seem to drink more, in spite of the fact that the physical impact of a given dose of alcohol is greater for women. In nonindustrial societies, women usually have more easy access to alcoholic beverages; in fact, they often monopolize production and predominate in the distribution system. A cross-cultural perspective shows that too narrow a focus on the social, psychological, and physical problems that excessive drinkers incur has severely hampered the understanding of women's diverse roles with respect to alcohol.

Perceived consequences associated with the use of beer, wine, distilled spirits, and wine coolers

Based on a national probability sample of 2,401 Americans aged 21 and over (1,069 of whom were deemed "drinkers" on the basis of having drunk at least one alcoholic beverage in the past 7 days), this study examines which of six specific problems people associate with the use of beer, distilled spirits, wine, and wine coolers. It was found that people are most likely to associate alcoholism, birth defects, drunk driving, and fighting and rowdy behavior equally with these four types of alcohol. But when beverage associations are made, distilled spirits and beer are blamed most frequently for these problems, whereas wine and wine coolers are virtually never thought of as being closely related to any of the problems under study. It was also determined that nearly 1 out of every 7 drinkers surveyed stated that birth defects are unrelated to alcohol use of any kind.

Social correlates of drinking in contrived situations

This chapter reviews the literature on experimentally created drinking situations with humans. In these experiments, social factors have been alternatively investigated as the dependent and independent variables. The findings of several studies assessing the impact of elements in the drinking environment are summarized. The effects of solitary drinking vs. group drinking have been covered and illustrate the quantitative and qualitative responses elicited. An aspect of this review examines studies that attribute behaviorally integrating effects to alcohol when the beverage is incorporated into certain therapeutic settings. Also illustrated are studies that have attempted to influence drinking behavior in alcoholics by using social contingencies.

Population change and public drinking in three rural communities

Three rural communities are compared in terms of barroom occupancy rates and observed alcohol consumption in that setting. It is hypothesized that rapid population increase will be associated with higher barroom occupancy rates and heavier consumption rates. This hypothesis is not supported. Instead it is found that higher levels of public drinking are found in association with population loss. It is concluded that generalizations concerning the deleterious effects of population growth should be made with caution only until additional studies document more precisely the nature of possible relationships between rapid population change and community mental health. Although it appears that progress has been made in developing methodologies for in-vivo studies of public drinking behaviour (Kessler & Gomber, 1974), such studies remain sparse in the drinking literature. Particularly infrequent are studies of barroom drinking designed to test specific hypotheses about the influence of changes in community life on public drinking behaviour. Many studies have focused on the sociology of bar behaviour (Cavan, 1966; Lewis, 1955; Marcrory, 1952; Rowbuck & Frese, 1976), identifying types of bars, distribution and location of public drinking settings, and characteristics and attitudes of patrons. Other studies have compared barroom drinking in laboratory settings (Billings, Weiner, Kessler & Gomberg, 1976), used observations to validate self-reports of drinking behaviour (Harford, Dorman & Feinhandler, 1976) and measured the effects of setting characteristics on consumption rates (Bach & Schaefer, 1979).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)