Responses by sons of alcoholic fathers to alcoholic and placebo drinks: perceived mood, intoxication, and plasma prolactin.
Young adult sons of alcoholic fathers (HR) were compared with matched young men from families without alcoholic relatives (LR) with respect to perceived mood, perceived intoxication, and plasma prolactin responses to oral challenge with two doses of alcohol and a placebo drink. HR subjects were found to have a qualitatively and quantitatively different mood response than controls to all three beverage conditions. HR subjects endorsed greater tension, depression, and fatigue across beverage conditions independent of alcohol dose. Alcohol dose interacted with risk status for perceived anger, vigor, and confusion. HR subjects reported less perceived intoxication on the descending limb of the alcohol concentration-time curve across all three conditions. These differential responses could not be explained by the occurrence of personality subtypes determined through administration of the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire. A significantly reduced prolactin response to alcohol in HR subjects could not be confirmed. Perceived mood effects of alcohol could have etiological significance in the development of alcoholism among HR individuals.