Udo Tomoko, Bates Marsha E, Mun Eun Young, Vaschillo Evgeny G, Vaschillo Bronya, Lehrer Paul, Ray Suchismita
Center of Alcohol Studies, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ 08854-8001, USA.
Psychol Addict Behav. 2009 Jun;23(2):196-204. doi: 10.1037/a0015015.
Basic mechanisms through which men and women self-regulate arousal have received little attention in human experimental addiction research, although stress-response-dampening and craving theories suggest an important role of emotional arousal in motivating alcohol use. This study examined gender differences in the effects of acute alcohol intoxication on psychophysiological and self-reported arousal in response to emotionally negative, positive, and neutral, and alcohol-related, picture cues. Thirty-six social drinkers (16 women) were randomly assigned to an alcohol, placebo, or control beverage group and exposed to picture cues every 10 s (0.1 Hz presentation frequency). Psychophysiological arousal was assessed via a 0.1-Hz heart rate variability (HRV) index. A statistically significant beverage group-by-gender interaction effect on psychophysiological, but not self-reported, arousal was found. The 0.1-Hz HRV responses to picture cues were suppressed by alcohol only in men. This gender-specific suppression pattern did not differ significantly across picture cue types. There were no significant gender differences in the placebo or control group. Greater dampening of arousal by alcohol intoxication in men, compared with women, may contribute to men's greater tendency to use alcohol to cope with stress.
尽管应激反应抑制理论和渴望理论表明情绪唤起在激发饮酒行为中起着重要作用，但在人类实验成瘾研究中，男性和女性自我调节唤起的基本机制很少受到关注。本研究考察了急性酒精中毒对情绪消极、积极、中性以及与酒精相关的图片线索所引发的心理生理和自我报告唤起的影响中的性别差异。36名社交饮酒者（16名女性）被随机分配到酒精饮料组、安慰剂组或对照组，并每隔10秒（呈现频率为0.1赫兹）暴露于图片线索中。通过0.1赫兹心率变异性（HRV）指数评估心理生理唤起。结果发现，饮料组与性别的交互作用对心理生理唤起有统计学显著影响，但对自我报告唤起无显著影响。仅男性的酒精会抑制对图片线索的0.1赫兹HRV反应。这种性别特异性抑制模式在不同类型的图片线索中没有显著差异。安慰剂组或对照组中没有显著的性别差异。与女性相比，男性因酒精中毒对唤起的抑制作用更强，这可能导致男性更倾向于用酒精来应对压力。
