[The time-course of alcohol induced changes in self-rating-scales of mood (author's transl)]

Alcohol was administered in a dose of 0.77 g per kg bodyweight to 16 healthy male subjects in a cross-over-design. A study was made of a number of psychological and physiological variables to determine the modifications that accompany the alcohol-induced changes in the orienting response to an auditory stimulus. Five determinations were made at intervals following a dose of alcohol and five in a control session when no alcohol was given. The results obtained for the psychological variables (self-ratings of the intensity of intoxication and the degree of being startled by the first stimulus; and self-assessment of mood) show alcohol to have stimulant as well as depressant effects. Some of the variables show stimulant effects, mainly at the beginning of the absorption phase, whereas other variables show depressant effects, both in the absorption phase and the postabsorption phase. Changes in physiological variables (such as parameters of electrodermal activity and of the heart rate response) support these findings. The simultaneous presence of both stimulant and depressant effects is pointed out as well as the difficulties in describing these findings in terms of a unidimensional model of activation.