Acute alcohol intoxication: sex comparisons on pharmacokinetic and mood measures

This study explored sex differences in pharmacokinetic and mood state responses to acute alcohol intoxication among socially drinking women demonstrated to be normally cycling across two consecutive menstrual cycles and men with similar drinking habits. Subjects were administered moderate or high alcohol doses in six experimental sessions over a 60-day period. Women were tested during the early follicular, ovulatory, and midluteal phases of the cycle, and men were administered alcohol at comparable time intervals. Results showed that men did not differ in alcohol pharmacokinetics across sessions, but women showed significantly shorter elimination times and faster disappearance rates during the midluteal phase of the menstrual cycle compared to the early follicular and ovulatory phases and to their male counterparts. There were no sex or within-group differences in self-reported negative mood states prior to alcohol administration, but women described increased anxiety and depression while intoxicated during the early follicular compared to ovulatory and midluteal phases. Affective responses to intoxication were a complex function of sex, limb of the blood alcohol concentration-time curve, and dose.