Content uploaded by Kenneth J Sher
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Kenneth J Sher
Content may be subject to copyright.
A preview of the PDF is not available
Alcohol and stress response dampening: Pharmacological effects, expectancy, and tension reduction
Abstract and Figures
Alcohol consumption and alcohol expectation were seperately evaluated in terms of effects on psychophysiological levels prior to stress and reduction of the magnitude of response to stress. Ninety-six male, experienced drinkers were assigned to eight conditions in a between-subjects design in which beverage consumed (alcohol or tonic), beverage expected (alcohol or tonic), and stressor (self-disclosing speech or threat of shock) were manipulated. Dosage for subjects receiving alcohol was 1 g ethanol/kg body weight. Results indicated strong effects of alcohol consumption on prestress levels, consisting of accelerated heart rate (HR), lower HR variability, higher skin conductance, longer pulse transmission time (PTT), higher 'cheerfulness' and lower 'anxiety' (ANX). This pattern of effects is related to previous unsuccessful attempts to specify a simple relationship between alcohol consumption and 'tension'. In addition, alcohol consumption significantly reduced the magnitude of the HR, PTT, and ANX responses of subjects to the stressors. No effects attributable to alcohol expectation were found. These results are integrated with the existing literature concerned with pharmacological and cognitive effects of alcohol as they pertain to stress, psychophysiological responses to stress, and 'tension reduction'.
Figures - uploaded by Kenneth J Sher
Author content
All figure content in this area was uploaded by Kenneth J Sher
Content may be subject to copyright.
... Typically, the correlations among these different categories of measures are only modest. Additional complexity derives from the dose dependency of the tension-reducing properties of alcohol, with considerable stress response dampening (SRD) reported at higher doses (Levenson, Sher, Grossman, Newman, & Newlin, 1980;, but more equivocal findings at lower doses . To this must be added further complications associated with subjects' expectancies (Rohsenow & Marlatt, 1981), limb of the blood-alcohol curve (B. ...
... A mood questionnaire (Nowlis, 1965) was administered, and then subjects were given instructions appropriate to the beverage they would be drinking. The information given to subjects as well as the procedure for administering the beverages can be found in Levenson et al. (1980). In the alcohol condition subjects consumed a beverage consisting of one part Popov's Vodka to four parts Sunrise tonic at a dose of 1 g ethanol/kg body weight. ...
... This could have been attributable to an imperfect expectancy manipulation. Although there might be procedural changes that could lead to a more successful expectancy manipulation (e.g., using a 5:1 mixture of tonic to vodka as opposed to the 4:1 mixture used), our manipulation check (reported in Levenson et al., 1980) showed the success of our manipulation to be comparable to that of other expectancy manipulations at the 1 g/kg dose (e.g., Lang, Goeckner, Adesso, & Marlatt, 1975). The difficulties of achieving perfect deception in the balanced placebo design using the 1 g/kg dose were discussed in the original report , and the interested reader is referred there. ...
In Exp I, male nonalcoholics (aged 21–30 yrs), considered to be at heightened risk for alcoholism on the basis of high scores on the MacAndrew Alcoholism Scale (MAC), were found to show much more pronounced reduction of their cardiovascular and affective responses (as measured by the Mood Adjective Check List) to stress when they consumed alcohol (1 g/kg) than did their low-risk controls. In Exp II, with 82 Ss, a similar finding for cardiovascular responses to stress was observed when risk was predicated on the basis of low scores on the Socialization (S) scale of the California Psychological Inventory (or on the basis of combined risk on both the MAC and S scale). Results indicate that outgoing, aggressive, impulsive, and antisocial individuals who are identified by these measures may find alchohol consumption particularly reinforcing by virtue of their obtaining a greater amount of alcohol's stress-response-dampening (SRD) effect when they drink. An etiological model of alcoholism that incorporates individual differences in the SRD effects is proposed. (58 ref)
... Individual differences may also explain some of this interstudy variation. Sher and Levenson (1982), in a reanalysis of data obtained from Levenson, Sher, Grossman, Newman, and Newlin (1980), found that only those subjects who had high scores on the MacAndrew's Risk for Alcoholism Scale experienced the stress-dampening effects of alcohol. Zeichner, Edwards, and Cohen (1985) found the stress-modulating effect of alcohol only in Type A long-term drinkers. ...
... Unfortunately, our design was restrained because of the difficulties involved in recruiting large numbers of subjects meeting our stringent criteria. We were aware that Levenson et al. (1980) had found expectancy effects to be nonsignificant using a paradigm similar to the one used here. Recent research also questions the validity of placebo controls when the design involves high dosages of alcohol (Knight, Barbaree, & Boland, 1986). ...
Three groups of 12 nonalcoholic men at differing degrees of genetic risk for alcoholism were tested with and without alcohol for their cardiovascular response to an aversive stimulus. A high-risk group consisted of sons of alcoholic fathers with extensive transgenerational family histories of alcoholism. A moderate-risk group included sons of alcoholic fathers whose previous generation was essentially negative for other alcoholic diagnoses. The low-risk group consisted of men with negative family histories for the disorder. Heart rate and digital blood volume amplitude were measured in each subject while resting and during a signaled shock procedure. Results show that the high-risk group was more cardiovascularly reactive to the stressor than the moderate-risk group when sober. Alcohol consumption led to a dramatic reduction in the degree of reactivity in the high-risk group, and it led to increased reactivity in the moderate-risk group. The trend for the low-risk group was similar to the moderate-risk group with no significant differences between the two. The methodology and results are discussed in terms of their relevance in the etiology of alcoholism in high-risk men and in terms of the need for generational controls in studying sons of alcoholics.
... Finally, the question may be raised of whether alcohol increased cardiovascular function, or merely prevented the decrease from water and placebo. Given the large literature indicating that alcohol increases heart rate (Levenson et al., 1980), we conclude that alcohol increased cardiovascular function and that the high baselines only made it appear that alcohol prevented declines from water and placebo. However, the latter interpretation cannot be ruled out definitively with the present data. ...
Research was conducted to evaluate the influence of acute alcohol consumption on vagal regulation of heart rate. Nine men with histories of polydrug use participated in this residential study. On 5 separate days, they drank liquids consisting of cold water (on 2 days), a moderate dose of alcohol (0.64 g/kg), a high dose of alcohol (1.12 g/kg), and a placebo. Continuous recordings of heart period were quantified to produce 3 measures of heart rate variability, reflecting the amplitude of 3 neurophysiologically mediated rhythms. Heart period, respiratory rhythm (i.e., respiratory sinus arrhythmia [RSA]), and the 0.06–0.10-Hz vasomotor rhythm were significantly lower during the high alcohol dose condition, relative to the placebo and water conditions. Because the neural regulation of the heart by the vagus contributes to these variables, these findings suggest that alcohol reduces cardiac vagal tone. In support of this explanation, alcohol also decreased the coupling between changes in heart period and changes in RSA. This study demonstrated that alcohol produces a dysregulated state in which heart rate is relatively uncoupled from vagal activity.
... The confounding of actual with expected interactions also means that any conclusions about the possible functions of increased drinking by subjects in the ADD/CD condition must be speculative. They could have drunk more to reduce the general tension due to the first interaction or to dampen the stressfulness of a second interaction (Levenson, Sher, Grossman, Newman, & Newlin, 1980), to reduce self-awareness (Hull, 1981), or to implement a cognitive self-handicapping strategy (Jones & Berglas, 1978). Further, it should be noted that some of the distress experienced by subjects, and consequently part of their motivation for drinking, may be attributable to evaluation apprehension occasioned by the experimenters' observation of their interactions. ...
Investigated levels of distress and alcohol consumption in Ss interacting with problematic vs non-problematic child confederates. Social drinkers were randomly assigned to interact with boys trained to enact behaviors characteristic of either normal or attention-deficit disorder/conduct disorder (ADD/CD) children. Mood data were collected before and after the interaction. Ss engaged in ad lib beer consumption for 20 min, while anticipating another interaction with the same boy. Children in the ADD/CD role produced comparably distressed moods for both male and female Ss. However, only men drank to higher blood-alcohol levels in the ADD/CD vs. normal child condition. Results suggest that higher rates of drinking observed in fathers of ADD/CD children may be partly a function of their particular response to the distress associated with interactions with such children.
... In fact, several studies have found that alcohol increases self-reported anxiety (e.g., McNamee, Mello, & Mendelson, 1968;Mendelson, LaDou, & Solomon, 1964;Steffen, Nathan, & Taylor, 1974). Most recently, two studies have found that alcohol does decrease responsivity to stressful situations (Levenson, Sher, Grossman, Newman, & Newlin, 1980;Wilson, Abrams, & Lipscomb, 1980), although it is unclear whether this effect is a function of alcohol's impact on tension per se or cognizance of the stressor. At the same time, it is unclear whether or not individuals drink in response to tension. ...
Tested the proposition that alcohol is consumed as a function of the quality of past performances and of the individual's level of private self-consciousness. 120 adult male Ss were randomly given success or failure feedback on an intellectual task. They then participated in a separate "wine-tasting" experiment in which they were allowed to regulate alcohol consumption. As predicted, high self-conscious Ss who had received failure feedback drank significantly more than did high self-conscious Ss who received success feedback. Consumption by low self-conscious Ss fell between these extremes and did not vary as a function of success and failure. Ss' scores on the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List indicated that these results were mediated by differential sensitivity to the positive or negative implications of success/failure by high and low self-conscious Ss. (38 ref)
The World Health Organization’s epidemiological data from 2016 revealed that while 57% of the global population aged 15 years or older had abstained from drinking alcohol in the previous year, more than half of the population in the Americas, Europe, and Western Pacific consumed alcohol. The spectrum of alcohol use behavior is broad: low-risk use (sensible and in moderation), at-risk use (e.g., binge drinking), harmful use (misuse) and dependence (alcoholism; addiction; alcohol use disorder). The at-risk use and misuse of alcohol is associated with the transition to dependence, as well as many damaging health outcomes and preventable causes of premature death. Recent conceptualizations of alcohol dependence posit that the subjective experience of pain may be a significant contributing factor in the transition across the spectrum of alcohol use behavior. This narrative review summarizes the effects of alcohol at all levels of the pain system. The pain system includes nociceptors as sensory indicators of potentially dangerous stimuli and tissue damage (nociception), spinal circuits mediating defensive reflexes, and most importantly, the supraspinal circuits mediating nocifensive behaviors and the perception of pain. Although the functional importance of pain is to protect from injury and further or future damage, chronic pain may emerge despite the recovery from, and absence of, biological damage (i.e., in the absence of nociception). Like other biological perceptual systems, pain is a construction contingent on sensory information and a history of individual experiences (i.e., learning and memory). Neuroadaptations and brain plasticity underlying learning and memory and other basic physiological functions can also result in pathological conditions such as chronic pain and addiction. Moreover, the negative affective/emotional aspect of pain perception provides embodied and motivational components that may play a substantial role in the transition from alcohol use to dependence.
The authors assessed the biphasic effects of alcohol on human physical aggression. Sixty male social drinkers were assigned to 1 of 4 groups: alcohol ascending limb (AAL), alcohol descending limb (ADL), or 1 of 2 sober control groups. Aggression was assessed in the AAL and ADL groups at respective ascending or descending blood alcohol concentrations (BAC) of 0.08%. Each participant in the control groups was respectively yoked with a participant in either the AAL or the ADL group to control for the longer period of time needed to reach a BAC of 0.08% on the descending limb compared with the ascending limb (i.e., passage of time effect). The authors measured aggression using a modified version of the Taylor aggression paradigm (S. Taylor, 1967), in which electric shocks are received from and administered to a fictitious opponent during a competitive task. The AAL group was more aggressive than the ADL group. There were no differences between the ADL group and the control groups, which suggests that alcohol does not appear to increase aggression on the descending limb. The control groups did not differ in aggression, thus ruling out a passage of time effect.
This article explains how alcohol makes social responses more extreme, enhances important self-evaluations, and relieves anxiety and depression, effects that underlie both the social destructiveness of alcohol and the reinforcing effects that make it an addictive substance. The theories are based on alcohol’s impairment of perception and thought—the myopia it causes—rather than on the ability of alcohol’s pharmacology to directly cause specific reactions or on expectations associated with alcohol’s use. Three conclusions are offered (a) Alcohol makes social behaviors more extreme by blocking a form of response conflict. (b) The same process can inflate self-evaluations. (c) Alcohol myopia, in combination with distracting activity, can reliably reduce anxiety and depression in all drinkers by making it difficult to allocate attention to the thoughts that provoke these states. These theories are discussed in terms of their significance for the prevention and treatment of alcohol abuse.
It has been shown that perceived alcohol ingestion heightens both aggression and sexual responding in males. In the present study, alcohol expectancy (expect alcohol vs. expect tonic), alcohol content (receive alcohol vs. receive tonic), and anger provocation (provoked vs. unprovoked) were factorially crossed to investigate their influence on male interest in viewing four types of slides: neutral, erotic, violent, and violent-erotic. Subjects' ad lib viewing times were unobtrusively measured. Alcohol expectancy emerged as the most potent of the manipulated variables, facilitating viewing times for the nonneutral slides and overriding the impact of alcohol content. This expectancy effect was more pronounced with the violent-erotic slides than with slides that were violent only. Within the violent-erotic slides, the expectancy effect was greater for a highly deviant subset of slides. Expect-alcohol subjects also reported more sexual arousal than did expect-tonic controls. The role of cognitive processes in mediating alcohol effects on negatively sanctioned psychosocial behaviors is discussed. Anger provocation increased verbal aggressiveness and reduced slide viewing.
Administered the S-R (Stimulus-Response) Inventory of General Trait Anxiousness to 182 male and 204 female normal high school students, 150 male and 197 female normal adults, 34 male and 91 female neurotic patients, and 35 male and 10 female psychotics. Ss responded differentially to the 4 general types of situations (interpersonal, physical danger, ambiguous, and innocuous) and reported the most anxiety for the physical danger situation and the least for the innocuous situation. Neurotic Ss reported more anxiety than either normal or psychotic Ss. Factor analyses indicated the existence of 2 situational factors (Interpersonal and Physical Danger) and 2 modes of response factors (Physiological-Distress and Approach). Individual differences accounted for very little variance, and for normal females, situations accounted for more variance than Person * Situation interactions. Reliabilities for the situations were relatively high, and evidence is presented for the validity of the inventory as a multidimensional measure of trait anxiety. Practical and theoretical uses of the inventory are discussed. (30 ref)
Describes 2 studies with 161 undergraduates (69 controls) directed toward development and validation of a self-report measure of social competence in dating and assertion situations. An 18-item questionnaire consisting of items that assessed the likelihood of certain specific behaviors occurring and the degree of discomfort and expected incompetence in specific situations was derived. This questionnaire discriminated between client and normal populations and between clients with dating and assertion problems, has psychometric properties of reliability and validity, and measures differential improvement following a variety of 3-wk intervention programs. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Psychiatric observations of mood, thought content, and social behavior of 12 volunteer subjects prior to, during, and following an experimental drinking situation were carried out. Contrary to commonly-held impressions concerning alcoholics, most of the subjects experienced an increase rather than a decrease in anxiety and depression; no subject reported subjective craving for alcohol following his first drink; the subjects maintained a high degree of social interaction with other patients and disruptive behavior was rare.
If one would truly appreciate the classic description of alcohol as “man’s psychological blessing and physiological curse” then much of the scientific mysticism surrounding this drug could be removed. The deleterious effects of alcohol oil the heart and blood vessels have long been recognized, yet recent and current medical literature tends to promote the “discretionary” use of ethanol in the treatment of various cardiovascular disorders such as angina pectoris, hypertensive cardiovascular disease, and obliterative vascular disease.
A review of psychophysiological studies of alcoholism. The paper contains the following sections: introduction, autonomic nervous system, psychophysiological studies of human ANS, psychophysiological studies of alcohol effects on the human ANS, summary, and references. (Author)
The hypothesis that meprobamate and alcohol as tranquilizing drugs decrease the galvanic skin response was tested on 30 Ss equated for 3 groups (meprobamate, alcohol, and placebo). Experimental results supported this hypothesis. Furthermore, they suggested that Ss with high emotional reactivity are tranquilized more than those with a low one. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Increasing interest among psychophysiologists in sympathetic (beta-adrenergic) influences upon the heart has created the need for noninvasive techniques for assessing these influences. The validity of pre-ejection period (PEP), a systolic time interval, as a measure of beta-adrenergic influences upon myocardial contractility is evaluated. Details of a procedure for determining PEP using a polygraph and digital computer are presented. This methodology is then applied to an experiment in which the intracardiac (PEP) and arterial subintervals of pulse transmission time (PTT) are measured during biofeedback-assisted control of PTT in order to evaluate the relative contribution of changes in PEP to PTT control.
Thirty-two male social drinkers were randomly assigned to one of two expectancy conditions in which they were led to believe that the beverage they consumed contained either vodka and tonic or tonic only. For half of the subjects in each expectancy condition, the beverage actually contained vodka; the others drank only tonic. After their drinks, subjects' heart rates were monitored during a brief social interaction with a female confederate. Self-report and questionnaire measures of social anxiety were taken before and after the interaction. Subjects who believed that they had consumed alcohol showed significantly less increase in heart rate than those who believed that they consumed tonic only, regardless of the actual content of their drinks. There was no effect of alcohol per se. The theoretical implications of these results are briefly discussed.