Blood ethanol levels, self-rated ethanol effects and cognitive-perceptual tasks

Family history of alcoholism influences the acute effects of ethanol in young men. We expanded these findings by concomitantly measuring plasma ethanol levels (BALs), subjective intoxication effects, and task performance in young women. Healthy subjects with no familial alcoholism provided informed consent and received 0.75 ml/kg ethanol or isocaloric placebo (n = 10 per group) under randomized double-blind conditions. Assessments were made at 90, 60 and 30 min before, and 15, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, 150 and 180 min after beverage administration. BALs reached 80 mg/dl 45-60 min following ethanol. Dizziness and clumsiness ratings correlated strongly with BAL, but clumsiness and confusion were the strongest effects associated with placebo. Impaired visual selectivity and hand-eye coordination covaried with BAL (p less than 0.05) on written tests. Deficits in abstract instruction and symbol comprehension almost attained statistical significance (p less than 0.06). Compared with previous findings for males, data from the present report suggest that ethanol may have gender-related effects.