CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 622Alcohol Consumption and Health EffectsNeurotransmitter Receptor Influence on BehaviorNeuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 425 of the 425 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Effects of Moderate Alcohol Consumption on the Central Nervous System*

Eckardt, Michael J., File, Sandra E., Gessa, Gian Luigi, Grant, Kathleen A., Guerri, Consuelo, Hoffman, Paula L., Kalant, Harold, Koob, George F., Li, Ting‐Kai, Tabakoff, Boris·1998·Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research
DOI 10.1111/j.1530-0277.1998.tb03695.x
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

The concept of moderate consumption of ethanol (beverage alcohol) has evolved over time from considering this level of intake to be nonintoxicating and noninjurious, to encompassing levels defined as “statistically” normal in particular populations, and the public health‐driven concepts that define moderate drinking as the level corresponding to the lowest overall rate of morbidity or mortality in a population. The various approaches to defining moderate consumption of ethanol provide for a range of intakes that can result in blood ethanol concentrations ranging from 5 to 6 mg/dl, to levels of over 90 mg/dl (i.e., 20 mM). This review summarizes available information regarding the effects of moderate consumption of ethanol on the adult and the developing nervous systems. The metabolism of ethanol in the human is reviewed to allow for proper appreciation of the important variables that interact to influence the level of exposure of the brain to ethanol once ethanol is orally consumed. At the neurochemical level, the moderate consumption of ethanol selectively affects the function of GABA, glutamatergic, serotonergic, dopaminergic, cholinergic, and opioid neuronal systems. Ethanol can affect these systems directly, and/or the interactions between and among these systems become important in the expression of ethanol's actions. The behavioral consequences of ethanol's actions on brain neurochemistry, and the neurochemical effects themselves, are very much dose‐ and time‐related, and the collage of ethanol's actions can change significantly even on the rising and falling phases of the blood ethanol curve. The behavioral effects of moderate ethanol intake can encompass events that the human or other animal can perceive as reinforcing through either positive (e.g., pleasurable, activating) or negative (e.g., anxiolysis, stress reduction) reinforcement mechanisms. Genetic factors and gender play an important role in the metabolism and behavioral actions of ethanol, and doses of ethanol producing pleasurable feelings, activation, and reduction of anxiety in some humans/animals can have aversive, sedative, or no effect in others. Research on the cognitive effects of acute and chronic moderate intake of ethanol is reviewed, and although a number of studies have noted a measurable diminution in neuropsychologic parameters in habitual consumers of moderate amounts of ethanol, others have not found such changes. Recent studies have also noted some positive effects of moderate ethanol consumption on cognitive performance in the aging human. The moderate consumption of ethanol by pregnant women can have significant consequences on the developing nervous system of the fetus. Consumption of ethanol during pregnancy at levels considered to be in the moderate range can generate fetal alcohol effects (behavioral, cognitive anomalies) in the offspring. A number of factors–including gestational period, the periodicity of the mother's drinking, genetic factors, etc.–play important roles in determining the effect of ethanol on the developing central nervous system. A series of recommendations for future research endeavors, at all levels, is included with this review as part of the assessment of the effects of moderate ethanol consumption on the central nervous system

Overview

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1111/j.1530-0277.1998.tb03695.x

Cites

425 of 425 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Citations

Cites

Research works printed but not linked: 23

  1. Haggard HW, 1942, Alcohol Explored, 12
  2. Péquignot G, 1958, Enquête par interrogatoire sur les circonstances diététiques de la cirrhose alcoholique en France, Bull Inst Nat Hyg, 13, 719
  3. Glaser FB, 1994, Moderate Drinking–The New Option for Problem Drinkers, vi
  4. Palomaki H, 1993, Regular light‐to‐moderate intake of alcohol and the risk of ischemic stroke, Is there a beneficial effect? Stroke, 24, 1828
  5. Edmondson HA, 1956, Alcoholism, 233
  6. Schuckit MA, 1992, Addictive States, 93
  7. Zimatkin SM, 1997, Ethanol metabolism in the brain. Addict, Biol, 2, 387
  8. Li T‐K, 1995, Genetic and gender differences in alcohol consumption and metabolism, NIAAA Res Monogr, 29, 87
  9. Watson PE, 1989, Human Metabolism of Alcohol, 41
  10. U.K. Department of Human and Social Security, 1995, Sensible Drinking: the Report of an Interdepartmental Working Group
  11. Dildy‐Mayfield JE, 1994, Ethanol inhibition of AMPA/ kainate receptor function in Xenopus oocytes: Role of calcium and protein kinase C, Alcohol Clin Exp Res, 18, 445
  12. Williams‐Hemby L, 1994, Cerebral metabolic mapping of the discriminative stimulus effects of ethanol, Alcohol Clin Exp Res, 18, 520
  13. Nixon SJ, 1995, Alcohol's effect on cognition, Alcohol Health Res World, 19, 97
  14. Starmer GA, 1989, Human Metabolism of Alcohol, 101
  15. Overton DA, 1982, Drug Discrimination: Applications in CNS Pharmacology, 291
  16. Holtzman SG, 1990, Modern Methods in Pharmacology, Testing and Evaluation of Drugs of Abuse, 193
  17. File SE, 1991, Current Practices and Future Developments in the Pharmacotherapy of Mental Disorders, 159
  18. Bishop BE, 1988, Non‐specific reversal of anxiolytic effect of ethanol by Ro 15‐4513 in mice, Proc Univ Otago Med Sch, 66, 43
  19. Parsons OA, 1982, Comments on “cognitive functioning in men social drinkers: A replication study., J Stud Alcohol, 43, 178
  20. Streissguth AP, 1983, The Pathogenesis of Alcoholism, 539
  21. 1993, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
  22. Streissguth AP, 1993, A Partial Least Square Solution, International Academy for Research in Learning Disabilities
  23. Druse MJ, 1992, Development of the Central Nervous System: Effects of Alcohol and Opiates, 139

Cited by

Sorted by citations

See all 622

Related

See all

Metadata

Authors
Eckardt, M. J., File, S. E., Gessa, G. L., Grant, K. A., Guerri, C., Hoffman, P. L., Kalant, H., Koob, G. F., Li, T., & Tabakoff, B.
Affiliations
Scripps Research Institute (US)
Corresponding author
Tabakoff, Boris
ORCID
Venue
Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research
Publisher
Wiley
Published
1998-08
Volume
22
Issue
5
Pages
998-1040
ISSN
  • 0145-6008 (ISSN-L)
  • 1530-0277
DOI
10.1111/j.1530-0277.1998.tb03695.x
OpenAlex
W2010108646
Cited by
622
References
425
Citations by year
2026: 8 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 23 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 22 · 2016: 14 · 2015: 26 · 2014: 34 · 2013: 31 · 2012: 38
FWCI
3.95
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor (vor, 2859 d)
Locations
  • Alcoholism Clinical and Experimental Research (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pathology and Forensic Medicine › Alcohol Consumption and Health Effects
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research
Keywords
moderate drinking, ethanol, central nervous system, alcohol metabolism, GABA system, glutamatergic system, serotonergic system, dopaminergic system, cholinergic system, opioid system, reinforcement, gender differences, cognitive effects, aging, fetal alcohol effects, fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, fetal alcohol syndrome
MeSH terms
Adult, Alcohol Drinking, Ethanol, Animals, Central Nervous System, Central Nervous System Diseases, Dose-Response Relationship, Drug, Female, Humans, Infant, Newborn, Pregnancy, Alcohol-Related Disorders, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review