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Alcohol and Alcoholism Vol. 35, No. 6, pp. 617-624, 2000
© 2000 Medical Council on Alcoholism

AUTONOMIC REACTIVITY TO MENTAL STRESSORS AFTER SINGLE ADMINISTRATION OF LORAZEPAM IN MALE ALCOHOLICS AND HEALTHY CONTROLS

Ralf Demmel*, Fred Rist and Robert Olbrich1

Psychological Institute I, University of Muenster, Fliednerstr. 21, 48149 Muenster and
1 Central Institute of Mental Health, P.O. Box 12 21 20, 68072 Mannheim, Germany

Received 19 October 1999; accepted 1 July 2000

Clinically unaffected sons of male alcoholics differ from controls without a family history of alcoholism in two respects: increased autonomic reactivity to aversive as well as non-aversive stimuli and increased attenuation of these responses by alcohol. This pattern of autonomic hyper-reactivity and alcohol-induced stress response dampening (SRD) might be a trait marker of genetic vulnerability and is often interpreted in terms of a diathesis stress model of alcohol dependence. Forty-five alcohol-dependent men (mean age: 39.20 years) and 37 healthy controls (mean age: 35.03 years) participated in a double-blind cross-over study in two experimental sessions each. The benzodiazepine lorazepam was selected as an alcohol substitute. Autonomic reactivity and lorazepam-induced SRD were assessed during incentive and non-incentive reaction time tasks as well as mental arithmetics. Alcohol-dependent men showed elevated resting heart rate levels and increased number of non-specific electrodermal responses. Evidence for autonomic hyper-reactivity was found for a subgroup of alcoholics with a family history of alcoholism.


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