Department of Psychology, Arizona State University.
Exp Clin Psychopharmacol. 2023 Oct;31(5):888-894. doi: 10.1037/pha0000640. Epub 2023 Feb 9.
Alcohol misuse represents a universal public health concern that spans multiple demographics. As such, understanding shared, biological indicators of alcohol-related risk is vital to implementing targeted prevention and intervention efforts. Self-report measures of subjective response to alcohol (SR) capture both psychological and pharmacological effects of alcohol and robustly predict patterns of alcohol use, negative consequences, and the development of alcohol use disorders. Importantly, several biological markers of alcohol's sedating effects, including cortisol, have been identified and complement subjective response assessments. However, biological markers of alcohol's stimulating effects are less understood. Studies have implicated alcohol-induced changes in heart rate as a viable marker, but heart rate measurements are susceptible to measurement error. Salivary α-amylase, a reliable indicator of sympathetic nervous system activation, represents a promising alternative biomarker of alcohol-induced stimulation. Using data from a large, placebo-controlled alcohol administration study ( = 448), the present study examined the extent to which α-amylase is a viable marker of alcohol-induced stimulation. To test this, a measurement model was estimated in which baseline and ascending limb subjective stimulation latent variables were created using two validated measures of subjective response. Ascending self-reports of stimulation and levels of α-amylase were then regressed onto beverage conditions and allowed to correlate with each other. Findings indicated that α-amylase is sensitive to acute alcohol consumption and is positively, but not statistically reliably, related to the ascending limb stimulant SR. Future studies should consider including salivary α-amylase as a noninvasive physiological indicator of alcohol's stimulating effects. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
酒精滥用是一个普遍存在的公共卫生问题,涉及多个人群。因此,了解与酒精相关风险的共同生物学指标对于实施有针对性的预防和干预措施至关重要。对酒精主观反应的自我报告测量(SR)既捕捉了酒精的心理和药理学效应,又能可靠地预测饮酒模式、负面后果和酒精使用障碍的发展。重要的是,已经确定了几种酒精镇静作用的生物学标志物,包括皮质醇,这些标志物补充了主观反应评估。然而,酒精兴奋作用的生物学标志物则了解较少。研究表明,心率的变化可以作为一种可行的标志物,但心率测量容易受到测量误差的影响。唾液 α-淀粉酶是交感神经系统激活的可靠指标,它是一种有前途的酒精刺激替代生物标志物。本研究利用一项大型安慰剂对照酒精给药研究的数据(n=448),检验了 α-淀粉酶是否是酒精刺激的可行标志物。为此,使用两种经过验证的主观反应测量方法,估计了一个基本测量模型,其中创建了基线和上升主观刺激潜在变量。然后,将上升的自我刺激报告和 α-淀粉酶水平回归到饮料条件,并允许它们相互关联。研究结果表明,α-淀粉酶对急性酒精消费敏感,并且与上升的刺激 SR 呈正相关,但统计学上不显著。未来的研究应考虑将唾液 α-淀粉酶作为酒精兴奋作用的非侵入性生理指标。(PsycInfo 数据库记录(c)2023 APA,保留所有权利)。