Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0016382 (flushing)
 6,387 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Facial flushing after the ingestion of alcohol is common among Asians. Flushers are genetically less able to tolerate alcohol than nonflushers and are less likely to become alcoholics. This study examined whether lower consumption of alcohol among flushers was correlated with cultural factors such as embarrassment over flushing as well as with biological factors among Japanese in Japan and Japanese-Americans using data from a joint Japan-U.S. collaborative survey. Eight hundred forty-six Japanese and 737 Japanese-American current drinkers with known flushing status were studied. The mean alcohol intake differed significantly between groups: (1) habitat--Japanese versus Japanese-Americans, (2) flushing status--flushers versus nonflushers, and (3) embarrassment about flushing. Among men, ethnicity was the major determinant of alcohol consumption, followed by flushing status and embarrassment about flushing. Among women, differences were not significant. Lower alcohol consumption by flushers than by nonflushers has been attributed to differences in physiological reactions to alcohol. However, this study demonstrated that cultural factors such as embarrassment also contribute to lower alcohol consumption by flushers. The lack of interaction between habitat and flushing status and between habitat and embarrassment status suggests that flushing status and embarrassment status associated with drinking levels are independent of habitat.
J Subst Abuse 1990
PMID:Genetic or cultural determinants of drinking: a study of embarrassment at facial flushing among Japanese and Japanese-Americans. 213 26

Abuse of alcohol (ethanol) and abuse of an increasing number of drugs (e.g. analgesics and sedatives) are among the outstanding social and medical problems of many industrialized countries including Switzerland. Since alcohol consumption has profound effects on both the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic actions of a variety of drugs, the rational use of drugs in alcoholics is an increasingly difficult task and requires a thorough understanding of the physiologic, biochemical, pharmacologic and toxic actions of alcohol. Clinically the most important targets of alcohol action are the liver and the central nervous system (CNS), both of which are frequently involved in the mediation of potentially fatal interactions between drugs and alcohol. In practice the most important of these interactions include (a) inhibition of hepatic (cytochrome P450 dependent) drug oxidation by acute alcohol ingestion resulting in increased bioavailability of drugs that are predominantly excreted by hepatic metabolism, (b) inhibition of acetaldehydedehydrogenase by some drugs with production of an acute flushing reaction to alcohol, (c) increased sensitivity of the CNS to a variety of sedative drugs following acute alcohol ingestion leading to enhanced CNS toxicity of most psychoactive drugs, (d) stimulation of hepatic drug oxidation and decreased CNS sensitivity to sedatives after chronic alcohol abuse, thus explaining the "metabolic" and pharmacodynamic tolerance of these patients towards psychoactive agents, and (e) depressed drug metabolism and increased CNS sensitivity to sedative and hypnotic drugs in patients with cirrhosis of the liver. The mechanisms and practical consequences of the clinically most important influences of acute and chronic alcohol ingestion on the pharmacokinetics and the pharmacodynamic actions of drugs are outlined.
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PMID:[Alcohol, alcoholism and drugs]. 391 83

This review summarizes recent findings from human research regarding genetic influences in alcohol abuse and dependence. Genes explain about 50% of the vulnerabilities leading to heavy drinking and associated problems. Most genetic influences appear to impact at least four prominent intermediate characteristics (phenotypes) that interact with environmental events to produce the alcoholism risk: a flushing response to alcohol; a low level of response to alcohol; personality characteristics that include impulsivity, sensation seeking, and neuronal and behavioral disinhibition; and through psychiatric symptoms. Polymorphisms potentially related to each phenotype have been identified, and studies were conducted to evaluate their characteristics in the context of environmental and psychosocial forces. A search is underway to identify genes that contribute to these phenotypes; the ultimate goals of which are better prediction of how to best prevent heavy drinking and problems, identifying individuals who may respond best to existing treatments, and development of new therapeutic approaches based on the biological underpinnings of alcoholism.
J Subst Abuse Treat 2009 Jan
PMID:An overview of genetic influences in alcoholism. 1906 48