Age-related differences in blood ethanol parameters and subjective feelings of intoxication in healthy men

Healthy men within 4 age groups, 20-29, 30-39, 40-49 and 50-59 years (N = 12 per group), drank 0.68 g/kg ethanol as neat whisky after fasting overnight. The drink was finished within 20 min and the concentrations of ethanol in capillary blood were determined at 30-60 min intervals for 7 hr. At the time of blood sampling, the men were asked to estimate their feelings of intoxication according to an arbitrary scale on which the score 10 indicated 'tipsy' or a 'little high'. The time course of blood ethanol concentration was similar in all 4 groups with the curve for 50-59-year-old men on the highest level and 20-29-year-old men lowest. Subjective intoxication scores were significantly less in the youngest age group and the maximum score for each subject was correlated with age (r = 0.45, P less than 0.01). Total body water (TBW) was not correlated with age directly (r = 0.17, P greater than 0.05) but when it was expressed as percent of body weight a strong negative correlation was found (r = -0.77, P less than 0.001). The mean total body water estimated from ethanol dilution was 46.7 +/- 4.1 l. (+/- SD, N = 48) and this corresponds to 58% of mean body weight of the men. The distribution volume of ethanol/kg body weight (Vd) decreased with ageing (r = -0.59, P less than 0.001) being 0.72, 0.71, 0.68 and 0.66 l/kg on average in the 20-29, 30-39, 40-49 and 50-59-year-old age groups respectively.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)