Alcohol consumption markedly increases the hepatic output of very low density lipoprotein (VLDL), whereas it decreases the resulting low density lipoprotein (LDL) levels and apolipoprotein B. As ethylation of apoB-lysine renders LDL immunogenic and accelerates their clearance, and as alcoholics develop antibodies against acetaldehyde-protein adducts, we searched for antibodies against lipoprote...

AIMS To examine the clinical and genetic characteristics of Korean male alcoholics with and without attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). METHODS The present study included 85 male alcoholics who were diagnosed as having DSM-IV alcohol dependence. A total of 28 (32.9%) alcoholics were diagnosed as having DSM-IV ADHD with ongoing symptoms in adulthood. For the evaluation of their ps...

Alcohol inhibits phospholipase (PL) activity in a number of animal models. We have therefore measured prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and leukotriene B4 (LTB4), liberated by stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and neutrophils respectively in chronic alcoholics and in control subjects. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells from alcoholics produced less PGE2 (p less than 0.01) and neutrophi...

Detoxified male and female alcoholics (aged 20-49 years) and age-matched controls performed a series of 15-sec target-tapping tasks in which they alternatively marked two target strips with a felt marker as rapidly and as accurately as possible. Consistent with "Fitts' Law" (Fitts PM: J Exp Psych 47:381-391, 1954), a highly linear relationship between movement time and task difficulty was obser...

OBJECTIVE Alcohol dependence may be associated with dysfunction of mesolimbic circuitry, such that anticipation of nonalcoholic reward fails to activate the ventral striatum, while alcohol-associated cues continue to activate this region. This may lead alcoholics to crave the pharmacological effects of alcohol to a greater extent than other conventional rewards. The present study investigated n...

Five years ago we completed and reported a longitudinal field trial of large-dose nicotinic acid in 500 diagnosed alcoholics over the preceding five years. Ten percent of this sample group was highly motivated, physically and emotionally intact, early intervention alcoholics. Forty percent were alcoholics demonstrating advanced physical symptoms and significant loss of personal and financial re...

BACKGROUND Pronounced disruption of memory traces by subsequent distractors may result in impaired behavioral memory performance in alcoholics. METHODS This hypothesis was investigated with an electrophysiological index of auditory sensory-memory traces, mismatch negativity, a preattentive event-related potential component elicited by a "deviant" tone within a train of "standard" tones. RES...

The endogenous opioid peptides dynorphins and enkephalins may be involved in brain-area specific synaptic adaptations relevant for different stages of an addiction cycle. We compared the levels of prodynorphin (PDYN) and proenkephalin (PENK) mRNAs (by qRT-PCR), and dynorphins and enkephalins (by radioimmunoassay) in the caudate nucleus and putamen between alcoholics and control subjects. We als...

The rate of ethanol metabolism was determined for 20 alcoholics during ajiemoon and evening drinking sessions on two consecutive days. Alcoholics demonstrated a faster rate of ethanol metabolism in the evening as compared to the afternoon, suggesting a circadian variation in the rate of ethanol metabolism. Previous drinking on the first day appeared to increase the rate of ethanol metabolism on...