The Biology of Alcoholism

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxix

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2. Genetic Factors in Alcohol Abuse: Animal Models

   • Gerald E. McClearn

   Pages 1-30

3. Genetic Factors in Alcoholism

   • William M. Grove, Remi J. Cadoret

   Pages 31-56

4. Acute Pharmacological Actions of Ethanol on the Central Nervous System

   • David H. Ross, Kennon M. Garrett

   Pages 57-75

5. Ethanol and Brain Mechanisms of Reward

   • Roy A. Wise, Aryeh Routtenberg

   Pages 77-105

6. Ethanol as a Reinforcer: Comparison with Other Drugs

   • Gail Winger, Alice M. Young, James H. Woods

   Pages 107-131

7. A Behavioral Analysis of the Reinforcing Properties of Alcohol and Other Drugs in Man

   • Nancy K. Mello

   Pages 133-198

8. Neurochemical Aspects of Tolerance to and Physical Dependence on Alcohol

   • Boris Tabakoff, Paula L. Hoffman

   Pages 199-252

9. Metabolic Mechanisms in Tolerance and Physical Dependence on Alcohol

   • C. J. Peter Eriksson, Richard A. Deitrich

   Pages 253-283

10. Endocrine Mechanisms in Tolerance to and Dependence on Alcohol

    • Theodore J. Cicero

    Pages 285-357

11. The Relationship of Tolerance and Physical Dependence to Alcohol Abuse and Alcohol Problems

    • Howard Cappell, A. Eugene LeBlanc

    Pages 359-414

12. Brain Dysfunction and Alcohol

    • Bernice Porjesz, Henri Begleiter

    Pages 415-483

13. Cognitive Deficits in Alcoholics

    • Christopher Ryan, Nelson Butters

    Pages 485-538

14. Prenatal Effects of Alcohol Abuse in Humans and Laboratory Animals

    • Ann Pytkowicz Streissguth, Joan C. Martin

    Pages 539-589

15. Amethystic Agents in the Treatment of Alcohol Intoxication

    • Carlton K. Erickson

    Pages 591-611

16. Back Matter

    Pages 613-635

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The previous volume, The Pathogenesis of Alcoholism: Psychosocial Factors, attempted to describe the interaction of biological, psychological, and social factors that lead to the initiation and perpetuation of alcoholism. The preface to that volume presented our particular view of the bio-. psycho-social interaction as a progressive process in which earlier developments produce new pathogenetic mechanisms, which in turn lead to still other cyclical feedback activities. Although influences from each of the three phenomenologic levels are at work during each stage of the clinical course, it would appear that social factors are most significant in the early phase, psychological factors at the intermediate level, and biological ones toward the end. These differences are only relative, however, for influences of all three types surely are operative during all stages of the syndrome. This appears to be particularly true for the biological parameters of activity. Don Goodwin (1976), who has supplied much of the data that support the role of hereditary factors in alcoholism, is wont to say that all living behavior is biological-by definition. The operational evidence for this is perhaps more evident in alcoholism than in other syndromes. For example, the general social indifference of many Asians to alcohol may reflect the presence of an atypical isoenzyme of alcohol dehydrogenase rather than some independently derived cultural norm.

• Syndrom
• alcohol
• alcoholism
• brain
• diagnosis
• growth
• memory
• nervous system
• pharmacology
• prevention
• syndromes

• Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, USA

  Benjamin Kissin, Henri Begleiter

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