DRUG-FREE TREATMENT REDUCES ALCOHOL-INDUCED PSYCHOMOTOR IMPAIRMENT

This thesis tested the possibility that behavioural tolerance to alcohol in humans can be trained without any exposure to alcohol.;In Experiment Two, twenty-five male social drinkers were randomly assigned to three groups, and were trained on the hand steadiness task. Then one group of subjects spun around 5 times before every trial on the task, one group spun aroung 3 times before every trial on the task, and one group performed trials without any exposure to spinning. Hand steadiness performance was greatly impaired by both the 3 and 5 Spin treatments, and complete "tolerance" to spinning was not observed by the conclusion of the session. Subsequently, all subjects were tested under alcohol. An early test of hand steadiness performance under alcohol revealed significantly less impairment in the two groups who had practiced the task while dizzy. While this evidence was consistent with that of Experiment 1, the effect of the spinning treatment was not sustained for all tests under alcohol.;It is concluded that behavioural tolerance to alcohol may be trained without any exposure to alcohol, but that extensive training to learn to compensate for the non-pharmacologically induced impairment of behaviour must be provided. "Tolerance" to the drug-free impairment likely must be displayed before increased tolerance to the drug-induced impairment will be clearly demonstrated.;In Experiment One, eleven male social drinkers were randomly assigned to two groups. Subjects were trained on two psychomotor tasks: A hand steadiness task and a balance task. Then the experimental group was instructed to "spin around" 5 times before every trial on the hand steadiness task. The control group spun around an equivalent amount, but after all trials were completed. Spinning initially impaired hand steadiness performance in the experimental group, but "tolerance" to spinning was observed by the conclusion of this session. Subsequently, all subjects were tested under a low dose of alcohol (.65 gm/kg). All tests of hand steadiness performance under alcohol revealed significantly less impairment in the experimental group who had practiced the task while dizzy. Balance performance was found to be insensitive to this low dose of alcohol.