Committee on Problems of Alcohol: A Report of Its Activities From 1949 to 1955, the Research Work It Has Supported and the Place of This Work in the Field of Alcoholism (1956)

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-12- cause an increase in voluntary alcohol consumption in white rats. This in- crease is not great, and his work has since been criticised by other workers in the field. (25) The RCPA grant Was made to enable htm to investigate fur- ther his theories on biochemical individuality in man, work which he hoped would help in the identification of the biochemical abnormalities which might exist in alcoholics, Dr. Curt P. Richter of The Johns Hopkins University has tried by a vari- ety of methods to influence the alcohol consumption of the rat. He has been able, in a few individual wild rats only, to produce a large and eventually fatal appetite for alcohol solutions by making the rats drink a 20$ alcohol solution for a long period of time in order to get drinking water. .When again given access to straight water, a few of these animals continued drinking alco- hol by preference, stopped eating, and eventually died. Dr. Richter warns that anything used in experiments of this sort which makes the rat's food taste badly will force him to obtain more of his calories from alcohol. In that type of situation a sugar solution will be preferred to the alcohol solution if both are offered. Dr. Richter (31) has found that if rats are forced to take alcohol in their water they will out down on their other food intake by the exact number .of calories they must take in with their water in the form of alcohol. Recently Dr. Richter has found that rats given thyroid extract will stop drinking alcohol entirely, although they have previously been voluntarily con- suming small but definite amounts daily.. He is interested in determining whether hyperthyroidism or the giving of thyroid hormone can be shown to have an effect on human alcoholism. .'..."...! •••.;.••.)•. Under a grant from the Committee on Problems of Alcohol, Dr. M. X. Zarrow (50) of Purdue University has studied the effects of castration, diabetes, removal of the adrenal glands, administration of cortisone, exposure to cold, and administration of thiouracil on the voluntary alcohol consumption Of the rat. Of these, only thiouracil caused any increase in alcohol consumption, and even this increase disappeared when the animal was offered sugar so- lution as-well. It can, therefore, be presumed that the bad taste of thi- ouracil in the food induced the animal to seek calories elsewhere, and did not produce any specific craving for alcohol by making the animal's thyroid underactive. " V. PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL .. . / . . • The general physiological actions of alcohol, both short-term and long- term, are of considerable interest. The changes in the salt and water bal- ance in the body in the alcoholic have been subjected to a good deal of study, much of it controversial. The question of the diuretic action of alcohol (i.e., does alcohol make the body pass more urine than it otherwise would?) has also not been settled adequately.

-13- .'•'• • :..•'•: •*.. .-: . .,, . . ..;.• • - • > • '• •?.».<; ' •" !.• ,.•;.••.. . ' "•.'• i:.'-v; "'." •••• • •. '. •/•••••• i.-."--: ,0 Ircs./.-O ",,».4 .. . •.... Early German experiments with "beer drinkers showed that their Subjects passed Identical amounts of urine after drinking the same.large quantities •••'' ' of eithei-ibeer or water. ''],;;'. J-;'::"'' :'•" -.^•:••:.•»:• •.•••-.•'.••!v.-.-.."^r..••"'.''"". •^ ;.'^ '!-;".••• ••••'•••. i *•» '••'''•'.*'•'•. •rr• .:.•..;•..-......• ,..•., '••• • J .t.;•... ? :'•^•-.••,.... .••. : . , Dr. Knoefel of the Ufliversltjr:ofx Louisville .School qf Medicine*,- under &'••'•"• Committee on Problems of AloolioX 'grant, has.been re-exprioring -the' subject in " dogs and hfifs.been able .to demonstrate a definite diuretic ao'tioh of alcohol' • ; .. much in excess of the diuretic e•ffect of'•a comparable amount .of water. He will be pushing ,foiT.fard:t'his w6rkj which'had been: delayed ,while he worked : out some of the problems involved in measuring .total body^...waier.,and extracellular • body water, data necessaryVf6r the proper. Interpretation^.of'^teir', s^t^ and: " other elflctrolyte excretion figures obtained in such eqqperiientsii r A! grant-in-ail has receiitly been given to ft:,.!., A.( iSlfipirsteih of' Ohio :>^'' State University to study,.'btiher aspects of this ^.p^oj^mii'.toci^ihg'the'iBietitoti''^ of alcohol in cardiac "piatients \iho retain toor much water'.In liheir bodies. "• ."' .1 J"''»*fi ; * .. . . . ''*•'••'•'•: "i";'; Related to the.salt-detainingAbility 'of the- body as well as. many other of the bodies' self-regulating taechaMsme.is-the cortex .of, the'adrenal gland. Dr. J. J. Smith (36) of Bellevue Hbspital had, been; studying. the adirehal func- tion of chronic alooholics .under a grant from the RCPAJ which was continued ' '- for an additional two years under the present Gonmitte.e.,. He found some evi- dence of .Impecired adrenal function'in'about one-third of..'a large group of chronic alcoholics and evidences of pituitary malfunction in a.bout another third. In addition, he'felt that certain physical .:findings 'frequently; -found'"•'• ifl chronic alcoholics could be related to partial adrenal insufficiency '6r•:' '-: other hormonal imbalanoe; ' /' •'••••" ' •. ...... •*••.•';; :v; .-••..!• .' '"''••' ••••'• : •.<:: , .• • . ...... .."'. ';''.''' •'•vfi5' ".: rv;•jf The adrenal cortex, and the pituitary-hypothalamic system which controls its activity, are both very complex structures with many .and. diverse actions.^ Great strides have been made in the understanding of pituitary arid adrenal ."' physiology in the last few years, and perhaps .the time is now.ripe for a more .detailed.and complex appraisal of the situation which Dr. Smith has explored • with .legs refined techniques^ - Work in this area is so .complex. and expensive however, that it may be necessary for the Committee to interest one of the centers^actively,engaged in this'work in• using their methodology in studying chronic alcoholism. The cost of setting: up a new alcoholism research unit* '!-' capable of handling this problem would be prohibitive. ..[.]• \ :' Dr.-Smith (37) aJLsp .evaluated the therapeutic effects of both an extract of the adrenal cortex and ACra(adre"nocorti(S.otrophlc hormone, the hormone from the pituitary which stimulates"'the adrenal cortex to. excrete its "own hormones) .on acute. /alcoholic intoxication, the hangover, delirium tremens (D.T.'s), and.Korsakpff's psychosis (a serious chronic organic'mental illness sometimes .occurring in chrohic alcoholics) .He obseirved • behef iioial - result!' in all these conditions,' His results have been challenged .eiseyhere since that time, and further study by other investigators would be'des.irable. (34, 29, U) ": »->/„• ;:,: ,' ••: '