Multiple Choice
Identify the choice that best completes the statement or answers the question.

Adolescents
Heavy drinking and alcoholism are more common among Jews than Christians.

Alcohol impairs activity at a receptor called the NMDA receptor. These receptors are located in what region of the brain?

Students tend to have liberal views about what constitutes a single drink. Often, if a student says they have had 3 drinks, they most likely really had 5 or 6.

What analysis did researchers discover that provided better clues than the DSM-IV of symptomatic alcohol abuse and dependence in adolescents?

A recent study has found that adolescents with both alcohol and antisocial problems show an increase in serotonin function.

What two overall methods does the author mention that are used to change someone’s behavior?

Biology - Neurobiology
Chronic alcoholism is known to damage which two areas of the brain?

Researchers have learned that alcohol may be particularly damaging to the brain’s reward pathways, specifically dopamine and serotonin neurons.

Which 3 factors have been indicated by data as risk factors for alcoholism?

According to some estimates, alcohol abuse in the United States is perhaps the number one cause of brain damage.

Prolonged abstinence from alcohol appears to allow some reversal of structural brain damage.

Wernicke’s Encephalopathy (WE) is a fatal disorder caused by what vitamin deficiency?

As a result of alcohol abuse, the stress hormone cortisol  is known to increase through a variety of mechanisms.

Research has shown that mice that don’t drink alcohol lack what opioid receptor?

What is the other known name for behavioral sensitization?

Gender, Ethnicity & Culture
The phenomenon where women need to drink less than men, for a shorter amount of time, to have the same adverse impact is known as “telegraphing”.

What percentage of the human brain is composed of water?

One study of veterans with alcoholic liver disease found that African Americans appear to be at greater risk for infectious diseases and have higher mortality rates.

What population was found to have the highest cirrhosis mortality rates?

Mexican-Americans tend to have a lower level of arrests for DUI offenses than other populations.

Much of what has been known in the past about alcohol use among American Indians was anecdotal, stereotypical and fueled by bias according to a senior research scientist at Colorado University.

Genetics & Other Risk Factors
This neurotransmitter is a key modulator influenced by genetics, early stress experiences, and alcohol:

Serotonergic dysfunction has been linked to a number of psychiatric disorders as well as alcoholism.

The primary role of serotonin appears to be that of an inhibitor.

Individuals may be able to identify their risk of developing alcoholism through a noninvasive measure of this electrical brain activity:

Studies have shown that people who have an anxiety disorder, but are not anxious at the time of testing, have high P300 amplitudes, suggesting they may be at risk for anxiety disorders and alcoholism.

What hormone is manufactured within the endogenous opioid system of the brain and produces euphoria much like morphine?

Genetic factors are believed to contribute to what percentage of the risk of developing alcoholism?

This part of the brain, critical for judgement and decision making, is considered corrupted by addiction.

Some genes are used or “turned on” in each cell. This is known as gene expression.

Genetic differences in individuals play no role in alcohol sensitivity.

Two enzymes important in metabolizing alcohol are ADH and ADLH.

Mental Health
New research has found that adult male alcoholics with antisocial personality disorder have abnormally low emotional responsiveness.

Which childhood disorder is a precursor to antisocial personality disorder and a major risk factor for adolescent alcohol and drug us?

Research indicates that childhood abuse is an important factor for the presence of comorbid anxiety disorders in alcoholics, particularly regarding:

Due to inadequate screening measures in alcoholic patients, this disorder is often under diagnosed:

People with high anxiety sensitivity (AS) have a fear of anxiety symptoms.

According to the New England Journal of Medicine, one quarter of the general population has thought about suicide at some point in their lives.

Pharmacology
The term kindling refers to:

Naltrexone, an opioid antagonist, decreases the rewarding effects of drinking and reduces craving for alcohol.

When opioids are stimulated, levels of this neurotransmitter are increased, leading to the “high” associated with a variety of drugs:

Physical Health
An increase in this protein indicates that the immune system is responding to an infection:

Acetaldehyde is the first product of alcohol metabolism.

Alcohol is metabolized principally in the liver by the two enzymes, ADH and ALDH, that act sequentially.

This molecule is involved in allergic diseases and has shown increased values in alcoholics:

The most common form of osteoporosis occurs in elderly women and is caused by a deficiency in progesterone.

Sensitivity to this mineral in alcoholics is a contributing factor in the elevation of blood pressure.

Chronic alcohol abuse damages hormones that regulate the body’s water and electrolyte balance.

Pregnancy, Prenatal Exposure & Parenting
Alcohol-related birth defects are closely associated with an alteration in the functioning of this hormone gland:

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1996 data revealed what percent of women used alcohol during pregnancy?

Prenatal alcohol exposure is the leading cause of known origin for mental retardation in the industrialized world.

In Denmark, all pregnant women are offered and most take advantage of free prenatal care at centers run by the government.

The ADH2*2 allele provides no protection against and/or resistance to developing Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.

Prevention, Intervention & Treatment
According to Michael Fleming, director of the Family Medicine Research Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, if physicians spend 5 to 10 minutes talking to their patients about alcohol use, what percent of their patients will significantly decrease their alcohol use?

The CAGE screening instrument outperformed the RAPS4 among populations examined.

In-person brief interventions are best directed toward those who are alcohol dependent rather than those who engage in hazardous drinking and/or abuse of alcohol.

Violence & Injury
According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 33 percent of American women experience domestic violence.

According to a study published in the January 2001 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, among working-age adults who are not substance abusers, women are much less likely to be injured than men.

According to the same study, by age 50 researchers found that substance abusers were significantly more likely to get injured if they were women.

Once considered a personality defect, we now know that there is a genetic basis for the predisposition to addiction in many individuals.

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