Citation

Lane SD, Cherek DR, Pietras CJ, Tcheremissine OV. Psychopharmacology 2004; 172(1): 68-77.

Affiliation

Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, The University of Texas Health Science Center-Houston, 1300 Moursund Street, Houston, TX 77030, USA. scott.d.lane@uth.tmc.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s00213-003-1628-2

PMID

14647967

Abstract

RATIONALE: Despite a well-established relationship between alcohol and risky behavior in the natural environment, laboratory investigations have not reliably shown acute alcohol effects on human risk-taking. OBJECTIVES: The present study was designed to demonstrate a dose-response relationship between acute alcohol administration and human risk taking. Further, this investigation sought to delineate behavioral mechanisms that may be involved in alcohol-induced changes in the probability of risky behavior. METHODS: Using a laboratory measure of risk taking designed to address acute drug effects, 16 adults were administered placebo, 0.2, 0.4, and 0.8 g/kg alcohol in a within-subject repeated measures experimental design. The risk-taking task presented subjects with a choice between two response options operationally defined as risky and non-risky. Data analyses examined: breath alcohol level (BAL), subjective effects, response rates, distribution of choices between the risky and non-risky option, and trial-by-trial probabilities of making losing and winning risky responses. RESULTS: The alcohol administration produced the expected changes in BAL, subjective effects, and response rate. Alcohol dose-dependently increased selection of the risky response option, and at the 0.8 g/kg dose, increased the probability of making consecutive losing risky responses following a gain on the risky response option. CONCLUSIONS: Acute alcohol administration can produce measurable changes in human risk-taking under laboratory conditions. Shifts in trial-by-trial response probabilities suggest insensitivity to past rewards and more recent losses when intoxicated, an outcome consistent with previous studies. This shift in sensitivity to consequences is a possible mechanism in alcohol-induced changes in risk taking.

Language: en