14 DAY TRIAL // Official statistics have always shown a great discrepancy between the number of male and female alcoholics, and a new scientific study sheds some light on why these differences occur.
Worldwide, alcohol represents the most commonly abused substance, right alongside tobacco. A large portion of men who drink a lot tend to become alcoholics, but their numbers are nearly twice as large as those of female drinkers.
Despite numerous researches conducted for determining the mechanisms underlying this difference, scientists have until now turned up next to no valid explanation.
But a new investigation shows that the neurotransmitter dopamine, which is involved in making people feel pleasure and satisfaction, may play a decisive role in distinguishing the reponses that men and women have to alcohol.
The work was conducted by scientists at the Columbia University and the Yale University, and the conclusions were published in the latest issue of the esteemed scientific journal Biology Psychiatry.
In the experiments, both male and female social drinkers, all of which were college students, were subjected to a series of alcohol consumption tests.
After consuming alcohol or non-alcoholic beverages, each of the students underwent a specialized positron emission tomography (PET) scan.
This technique was used so that experts could determine the amount of dopamine released by alcohol consumption. Male students always exhibited greater dopamine release levels than women did.
According to the researchers, the area that accumulated most of the neurotransmitter is called the ventral striatum, and past studies have associated it with pleasure, reinforcement and addiction formation.
“In men, increased dopamine release also had a stronger association with subjective positive effects of alcohol intoxication,” says the corresponding author of the study, expert Dr. Nina Urban.
“This may contribute to the initial reinforcing properties of alcohol and the risk for habit formation,” she explains further, quoted by AlphaGalileo.
“Another important observation from this study is the decline in alcohol-induced dopamine release with repeated heavy drinking episodes,” adds senior author Dr. Anissa Abi-Dargham.
“This may be one of the hallmarks of developing tolerance or transitioning into habit,” the expert adds.