Cyclic nucleotides in the development of alcohol tolerance and dependence: a commentary

This paper aims to outline some of the caveats inherent in studies on first and second messengers in the central nervous system as related to tolerance and dependence. Analysis of systems based on measures of first and second messengers may be an over-simplification, since the actual molecular consequences of neurotransmission might result in a multilevel cascade of many sequential messages including protein kinase activation and protein phosphorylation and/or dephosphorylation.