Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:6.2.1.7 (BAL)
 1,977 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Suicides, homicides, motor vehicle crashes, and other violent deaths and injuries are linked inextricably to alcoholism. The association of injury and alcoholism should be particularly obvious to Emergency Department (ED) physicians. We sought to determine the extent to which intoxicated patients in an ED were properly diagnosed, counselled, and referred for substance abuse care. We reviewed the charts of 153 consecutive patients seen in a teaching hospital ED who had blood alcohol levels above 100 mg%. Most were male (70%), white (62%), young (mean age, 34 years) and severely intoxicated (mean BAL, 245; range, 109-558 mg%). Forty-six per cent of visits were for trauma; half of the patients were victims of violent assaults. The intoxicated patients received extensive medical and surgical management: an average of five tests or X-rays were performed per patient; 75% received at least one medication; at discharge 48% were referred for followup to medical or surgical clinics. In contrast, few patients were evaluated for dangerous behaviors or referred for treatment of alcoholism: only 19 patients (12.5%) were asked about depression, suicide, or homicide; 15% were advised to stop drinking; 13% received a referral to a psychiatrist, mental health worker, or alcohol rehabilitation facility. Forty-seven per cent of patients received "stat" intravenous thiamine (although the Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome is rare). In contrast, only 16% received a stat on-site psychiatric consultation (although dangerous behaviors are common in alcoholics). There was a strong, statistically significant negative association between the occurrence of an injury and the decision to initiate treatment and referrals for alcoholism.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
 ...
PMID:Alcohol intoxication, injuries, and dangerous behaviors--and the revolving emergency department door. 221 33

Physiologic activation response patterning, termed activation peaking, and visuospatial learning performance were examined to understand the effects of chronic alcohol use on complex information processing. A total of 18 alcoholic male inpatients in an alcoholism treatment unit served as participants. Nine persons were seen while intoxicated (mean blood alcohol level [BAL] = 18.0mg/dl) at time of admission to the unit. The second group of nine persons were seen detoxified after 4 weeks in the treatment unit (BAL = 0 mg/dl). Skin conductance and heart rate were measured before and during learning. Learning consisted of a paired-associate paradigm requiring participants to learn the distinct spatial positions of six randomly presented "nonsense" shapes. The visuospatial learning of the intoxicated alcoholics was superior to that of the detoxified alcoholics. The physiological patterning of intoxicated alcoholics clearly and correctly tracked their learning performance, while the detoxified alcoholics displayed no clear pattern. The results indicated that the detoxified alcoholic may suffer a disruption in attentional mechanisms related to visuospatial information processing, providing support for theory that alcohol ingestion may serve to balance information processing in the alcoholic.
 ...
PMID:Activation peaking in intoxicated and detoxified alcoholics during visuospatial learning. 336 4

The present investigation examined the effects of placebo (P), low dose (LD) and high dose (HD) ethanol on EEG activity in two groups of males. One group consisted of individuals at high risk for the development of alcoholism (HR, N = 21) while the other consisted of matched, low risk (LR, N = 21) controls. Only one condition (P, LD or HD) was presented each day and condition order was randomized. For each subject, both blood alcohol level(s) (BAL) measured via breathalyzer and EEG activity, using the entire 10/20 international system, were recorded prior to and at intervals of 35, 70, 105 and 140 min after P, LD or HD administration. The Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) was used to calculate power spectral densities (PSD). Measures of relative area under the power spectral curve were obtained for each of the following frequency bands: slow alpha (SA, 7.5-10 Hz), fast alpha (FA, 10.5-13.0 Hz), slow beta (SB, 13.5-19.5 Hz) and fast beta (FB, 20-26 Hz) at electrodes: F3, F4, C3, C4, P3, P4, O1 and O2. The results of repeated measures MANOVA conducted on the normalized values of relative areas revealed that at each electrode examined, ethanol elicited significant changes only in SA activity. Risk group differences in SA activity were observed only at electrodes F3, F4 and P4. These differences were the consequence of differential ethanol effects rather than differences in baseline SA levels.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
 ...
PMID:The effects of ethanol on EEG activity in males at risk for alcoholism. 768 71

Individuals with a family history of alcoholism (FH+) are at risk to develop alcohol problems. In several studies, psychophysiological stress responses were more attenuated by alcohol in FH+ than in FH- subjects. However, it is not clear from these studies, if this stronger stress-response dampening effect of alcohol (SRD) in FH+ subjects is confined to aversive stimuli, or would hold for nonaversive stress conditions as well. Also, male and female FH+ subjects seem to respond differently to the alcohol challenge, but have rarely been directly compared in a SRD paradigm. Participants were 54 female and 63 male healthy adults; 31 women were daughters (DOAs) and 40 men were sons (SOAs) of alcohol-dependent fathers. The remaining 23 women (DONAs) and 23 men (SONAs) had no FH of any alcohol use disorder. The participants took part in two laboratory sessions, one with and one without alcohol. In each session, three stressor procedures were presented. Heart rate is the main dependent variable in this report. SOAs, but not SONAs showed a tendency towards SRD. Among female participants, a strong SRD occurred, but contrary to our expectation only in controls. Stress responses and SRD effects were somewhat stronger in the aversive than in the rewarding task. The extent of alcohol induced SRD was strongly influenced by BAL and the amplitude of the stress response in the no-alcohol condition (multiple regression analysis). Thus, aversive tasks might have the advantage of eliciting stronger stress responses than rewarding tasks, thereby providing better conditions for observing differences in alcohol induced SRD between FH+ and FH- subjects.
 ...
PMID:Alcohol-induced heart rate response dampening during aversive and rewarding stress paradigms in subjects at risk for alcoholism. 1638 12