Stewart S H, Finn P R, Pihl R O
Department of Psychology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Psychopharmacology (Berl). 1995 Jun;119(3):261-7. doi: 10.1007/BF02246289.
Alcoholics have previously been found to be more sensitive to painful stimulation than controls, and more sensitive to the pain-reducing effects of alcohol. The present study was designed to examine these effects in men at high familial-genetic risk for alcoholism and controls. Subjects were assigned to one of four alcohol doses [0.135 (active placebo), 0.50, 0.75, or 1.00 ml 95% USP alcohol/kg body weight]. Ratings of the amount of discomfort and pain experienced during an aversive shock procedure were taken immediately post-shock, both while subjects were sober and after they had consumed one of the four alcohol doses. High risk men were found to rate the experience of the shock as more uncomfortable and painful overall than the low risk controls. Pharmacologically significant levels of alcohol were found to reduce or eliminate these group differences, suggesting that alcohol has a "normalizing" effect on pain and discomfort perceptions in high risk men. Only the higher doses of alcohol were found significantly to dampen subjects' shock rating scores. High risk males' increased sensitivity to pain and discomfort, combined with the negatively reinforcing effects of reducing these perceptions at moderate to high alcohol doses, may play a role in predisposing high risk males for the development of alcoholism.
此前发现酗酒者比对照组对疼痛刺激更敏感，且对酒精的止痛效果也更敏感。本研究旨在考察酗酒家族遗传高危男性及对照组中的这些效应。受试者被分配到四种酒精剂量之一[0.135（活性安慰剂）、0.50、0.75或1.00毫升95%美国药典酒精/千克体重]。在厌恶电击程序中，电击结束后立即对受试者清醒时以及饮用四种酒精剂量之一后所经历的不适和疼痛程度进行评分。结果发现，高危男性比低危对照组总体上对电击体验的评分更高，感觉更不适、更疼痛。发现具有药理学意义水平的酒精可减少或消除这些组间差异，这表明酒精对高危男性的疼痛和不适感知具有“正常化”作用。仅发现较高剂量的酒精能显著降低受试者的电击评分。高危男性对疼痛和不适的敏感性增加，再加上中高剂量酒精减轻这些感知的负强化作用，可能在使高危男性易患酗酒方面发挥作用。
