Recent developments in alcoholism:biobehavioral correlates

Abstract

A literature review was conducted from 1940 through 1992 on the general topic of alcohol-induced hangover. We focused on the physiological, behavioral, and performance decrements demonstrated hours after a physiologically relevant dose of alcohol was administered in both humans and animals. The purpose of this report was threefold: (1) to review and report both previously published and new data from our laboratory concerning the "after effects" of acute high-dose alcohol administration; (2) to highlight the similarities between and usefulness of data generated from both human and animal studies; and (3) to propose that the hangover phenomenon may be the result of one of the three following hypotheses: (a) an opponent-process physiological rebound from alcohol's immediate, intoxicating effects, (b) some toxic reaction to alcohol or its metabolic by-products, or (c) to the circadian dysrhythmia induced by the immediate intoxicating effects of alcohol.