Talk:Short-term effects of alcohol consumption

Effects on sexual activity
http://www.jrussellshealth.com/alcmen.html That's a website with information and cited sources. I think it's important to include that alcohol kills sperm, can affect your ability to have/maintain an erection, etc. or to at least present the arguments.


 * Definitely an important and well-documented sub-topic that should be present, even if Long-term effects of alcohol and other alcohol-related articles cover some of the longer-term effects. Pardon my English, but the "whiskey-dick" effect is well-known. — SMcCandlish   Talk⇒ ʕ(Õلō)ˀ  Contribs. 05:15, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

Problems for cleanup
Please identify specifically what needs cleanup so that it can be done. Thank you.DUI Investigator 18:37, 11 November 2006 (UTC)
 * I didn't put up the tag, but here are a few weaknesses of the article:
 * Throws around terms like "inebriation", "intoxication", and "drunkeness" without defining or distinguishing between them.
 * *"alcohol poisoning" is redirected here and used in the article but not defined.
 * Organization is lacking. Overlap between "Effects by Dose" and "Intoxication" section. Random small sections about blackouts and hiccups.
 * -SpuriousQ 21:27, 12 November 2006 (UTC)


 * Two of these issues remain (I've struck the other one). Among many others. — SMcCandlish  Talk⇒ ʕ(Õلō)ˀ  Contribs. 06:22, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

Would putting in psychological analysis be a good idea?
i see people mentioning about the GABA but it is not being displayed in the page so i'm thinking of using my psychology book as the main source of how alcohol consumption effects people's mood.

Mallenby effect
I merged the content from the page Mallenby Effect because it was a stub. It had one source that I didn't know how to catgorize. It is marked with a citation needed notice. See its old talk page Talk:Mallenby Effect —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kville105125 (talk • contribs) 20:50, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

Contradictory statements
Under the section on Slowing, this is stated: "GABA could also be responsible for the memory impairment that many people experience. It has been asserted that GABA signals interfere with the registration and consolidation stages of memory formation. As the GABA system is found in  the hippocampus, (among other areas in the CNS), which is thought to play a large role in memory formation, this is thought  to be possible."

And under Pharmacology, it says:

" Alcohol at high doses acts as an antagonist of the NMDA receptor, and since the NMDA receptor is involved in learning and memory, this action is thought to be responsible for the "memory blanks" that can occur at extremely high doses of alcohol."

I have a reference that says alcohol blocking the Ca+ channel in NMDA receptors is primarily responsible, and possibly other transmitter systems. "Alcohol interferes with the activation of the NMDA receptor, thereby preventing the influx of calcium and the changes that  follow (Swartzwelder et al. 1995). This is believed to be the primary mechanism underlying the effects of alcohol on LTP, though other transmitter systems are probably also involved (Schummers and Browning 2001)."

I'm suggesting it should be re-written, using a different source and put under one section. New Source Έρεβος 22:27, 8 December 2007 (UTC)


 * Sounds good to me. I'd recommend including both, explaining that NMDA-antagonism is thought to be the primary cause but GABA-modulation has also been suggested.  It should also be mentioned whether or not the two theories are mutually exclusive (it doesn't seem so based on what I see here, but perhaps you've read otherwise). --Xiaphias (talk) 07:30, 11 December 2007 (UTC)


 * So it looks like nothing got changed here. I just read it and was thinking the same thing then came here just to find out the page has been like that for over a year. I mean I guess I don't really want to deal with going through the sources either, but having something like that makes that part of this page useless as secondary literature and calls the other sections into question by association. We might as well replace all of that with a list of references. The problem is the "moderate dose" section tells an appealing story but has no references, while the pharmacology section has a bunch of references but they are just placed at the end of paragraphs in a big group and most of them dont include pubmed links, making it a big hassle to verify. I guess I'm just going to be lazy like you guysRepapetilto (talk) 03:37, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

Error in "Moderate Doses" section
The last line of the second paragraph, "Likewise, people consuming non-alcoholic drinks often exhibit drunk-like behavior on a par with their alcohol-drinking companions even though their own drinks contained no alcohol whatsoever.[citation needed], " jumps tenses, and I suspect was written by someone who doesn't know what they're talking about. Someone please fix it to be grammatical or remove it (I haven't got enough prior edits to do this myself).

Kyledr (talk) 01:28, 20 July 2008 (UTC)


 * It's been expanded and reworded, but remains unsourced. It claims that there is a source, but fails to provide it. It's also probably true and reliably sourceable, but I'm not inclined to do the sourcing. — SMcCandlish  Talk⇒ ʕ(Õلō)ˀ  Contribs. 06:02, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

todd is also the bomb — Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.45.22.130 (talk) 05:36, 6 March 2012 (UTC)

Ethanol is not an agonist at GABA-A, it is an allosteric positive modulator
There is no specific receptor for ethanol but rather a binding pocket where ethanol acts as an allosteric positive modulator. This should be corrected. —Preceding unsigned comment added by NaK-Pump (talk • contribs) 16:54, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

edit: I've gone ahead and changed it. Will find a citation if anyone thinks this necessary but it's pretty common knowledge. NaK-Pump (talk) 20:03, 5 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Of course its necessary to provide a citation, per WP:V. — SMcCandlish  Talk⇒ ʕ(Õلō)ˀ  Contribs. 04:34, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

Brain stimulation at low doses?
Some alcoholic prone person definitely wrote this:


 * "at low concentrations it can actually stimulate certain areas of the brain"

Camilo Sanchez (talk) 08:51, 24 May 2009 (UTC)


 * It's actually a recognized phenomenon and may help explain why some people become more talkative or outgoing after their first few drinks. Alcohol kind of acts like a volatile anesthesic. Although at the cellular level its actions are purely depressant (i.e. enhanced GABA-mediated inhibition, inhibition of voltage gated calcium channels, inhibition of NMDA receptor function, and inhibition of adenosine transport) it can result in increased neuronal activity in some parts of the CNS (probably by inhibition of inhibitory interneurons). A notable region that is stimulated is the mesolimbic dopaminergic neurons involved in the reward pathway (though release of endogenous opioids by alcohol may also play a part in this). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 219.90.163.139 (talk) 13:00, 7 December 2009 (UTC)


 * That's potentially interesting to add, but requires reliable sources. — SMcCandlish  Talk⇒ ʕ(Õلō)ˀ  Contribs. 05:56, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

Cleanup
This article has long been tagged for cleanup. I've done style and especially citation cleanup on the first 2/3 or so of the article (I stopped at the "Pathophysiology" section). The "Effects by Dosage" section is almost entirely unsourced. The "Pathophysiology" section has very problematic sourcing, in that all of the sources for each paragraph are simply dumped in a pile at the end, instead of used inline to match up specific facts with specific sources, so the whole section needs to be redone. The citations other than the ones I've cleaned up do not use cite journal, and a large number of them put terminal punctuation after instead of before the citation, and space the citation away from the cited text, which isn't how we do it here. Also, abbreviated journal names should not be used in Wikipedia, as WP is for a general audience, not specialists, and 99.9% of our readers have no idea what the full journal names are. Finally, the style guide here calls for Using Title Case, Like This for article titles as well as journal names (even if the original publication used lower case for all but the first letter). — SMcCandlish  Talk⇒ ʕ(Õلō)ˀ  Contribs. 04:33, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

Alcohol and dehydration
Isn't there another mechanism by which alcohol causes dehydration in the body? It seems like I remember in chemistry class, the professor showed how the body used water in a certain ratio to process alcohol, but I can't remember; maybe I'm thinking of some other substance.  Tisane  talk/stalk 01:11, 9 July 2010 (UTC)
 * It's more to do with the excretion; your body hates ethanol with a passion and the result is that it is mixed with a lot of water, and then you excrete it out. Ethanol can't be excreted directly and has to be mixed with water for the urine, and so you lose water and get gradually more and more dehydrated. For future reference, questions and topics not pertaining to the article itself should be directed to the reference desk, specifically the one for science questions. Regards, --— Cyclonenim | Chat 11:55, 9 July 2010 (UTC)

Why Only Nervous System Effects?
Why does both this article and the main Ethanol article seem to lack any info on effects beyond those involving the central nervous system? Isn't there a plethora of other effects, such as cardiovascular (i.e vasodilation) or digestive? Take the very well known myth that alcohol warms the body (a result of vasodilation), which has no mention on either this article or the main ethanol article. LiamSP (talk) 17:57, 6 March 2012 (UTC)

LD50
After excessive drinking, unconsciousness can occur and extreme levels of consumption can lead to alcohol poisoning and death (a concentration in the blood stream of 0.40% will kill half of those affected[3][4])

One reference is a dead link, the other seems to be a page set up by some students, without any source for the data. It states: "The following is a generalized alcohol affect chart based on a 150 pound person, metabolizing 0.5 ounces of alcohol per hour, that has eaten. Please note that 50% of the persons who attain a blood alcohol level of 0.4 will die!" Given that the chart that follows lists BAC values, not amount of alcohol consumed, the relevance of the person's weight escapes me. Not really what I would consider a reliable source. I'd expect a RS to at least provide statistical evidence to back up their claim. Ssscienccce (talk) 16:01, 9 August 2012 (UTC)

btw, the section on Alcohol abstinence and sleep disruptions, most of the Pathophysiology section, and the last paragraph of the lede seem to be about long-term effects? Ssscienccce (talk) 17:32, 9 August 2012 (UTC)

looking at the LD50 page provides a LD50 of BAC as 1.11 (calculated)not 0.40 but for Rats and not humans. I think the 0.40 is much too low as listed. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.62.100.39 (talk) 05:39, 18 August 2012 (UTC)


 * Now for some reason it is this 36 number: "in fact, a concentration in the blood stream of 0.36% will kill half of those affected.[2][3][4]". I don't see how the provided references prove that. --User123o987name (talk) 21:51, 6 July 2020 (UTC)

Short term effects
Some short term effects of alcohol can be defined as the things that people do while intoxicated such as driving, violence, stumbling and falling, and alcohol poisoning. All of which can lead to serious injuries, prolonged health issues, lifestyle changes, and death. Most of which are caused by the irresponsible drinker. Prevention of irresponsible drinkers actions and consequences should be proposed in a manner where alcohol is a more controlled substance. “Impaired Driving: Get the Facts” cdc.gov, Time 02 Oct. 2012. Web 18 Mar. 2013 “Alcoholism Series: Alcohol and crime statistics” www.saratogian.com, Time 13 Mar. 2011. Web 18 Mar. 2013.  “Alcohol and Public Health: Fact Sheets” cdc.gov, Time 01 Oct. 2012. Web 18 Mar. 2013.  “FactStats:Alcohol Use:Mortality” cdc.gov, Time 11 Jan. 2013. Web 18 Mar. 2013.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.175.128.223 (talk) 17:36, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

Cardiovascular events
10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.115.019743 JFW &#124; T@lk  21:44, 8 March 2016 (UTC)

Undefined Term: SWS
In the Moderate alcohol consumption and sleep disruptions subsection of the Sleep section, the term, SWS, is used twice but is never defined. Is this term meant to refer to Slow-wave sleep? If so, that should be indicated/wikilinked in the text. If it is meant to refer to something else, that should be indicated in the text instead. As is, the text leaves a hole in the information available. Shortsword (talk) 22:00, 24 August 2017 (UTC)
 * Yes, presumably. Fixed it. Sizeofint (talk) 05:57, 25 August 2017 (UTC)

What about the effects on reasoning ability?
I came here (and to various other articles) looking for information about the effects of alcohol on reasoning ability (because I was looking at https://senseis.xmp.net/?AlcoholAndGo ), but found very little. Is there much known about this, that could perhaps be usefully added here, e.g. what level has a significant effect, how soon it happens, how long it lasts, relationship to age? Other factors affecting the playing of intellectual games would also be of interest. PJTraill (talk) 21:54, 1 September 2018 (UTC)

Not short-term
If short-term is defined as effects observed within hours after a single instance of alcohol consumption, then some of the content of this article is not relevant, as it describes changes seen after weeks to months of alcohol consumption. Could be moved to either Alcohol and health or Long-term effects of alcohol consumption. David notMD (talk) 13:27, 7 April 2019 (UTC)


 * @David notMD Agreed. Take a look at my post about the recent studies. 85.193.215.210 (talk) 14:46, 20 December 2022 (UTC)

Hyperlinks to this article
There is an active RfC underway on the Whisky talk page as to whether the "whisky" article will include links to this "Short-term effects of alcohol consumption" wikipedia article, and similar articles Specifically: Should the whisky article provide direct links to articles about the effects of ethanol on those who consume whisky? Here is a proposed sentence with hyperlinks: Some effects of whisky consumption are due to its alcohol content. See: Alcohol intoxication, Short-term effects of alcohol consumption, Long-term effects of alcohol, and Alcohol and health. sbelknap (talk) 21:18, 21 April 2021 (UTC)

The recent studies
The recent studies, conducted in three German universities, prove that even a single dose of alcohol can permanently damage part of your brain. 85.193.215.210 (talk) 14:37, 20 December 2022 (UTC)
 * What you cite may be true, but Wikipedia does not accept in vitro research (nor animal research, nor individual clinical trials) as valid references. See WP:MEDRS for policy. David notMD (talk) 14:52, 20 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Ok, then let's wait for large randomized clinical trials. 85.193.215.210 (talk) 15:16, 20 December 2022 (UTC)
 * The claim seems believable enough, but the writeup does not use the word damage, only modify. It's important that we not read into our sources things that aren't there. Still, I only looked at the Science Daily article, not the presumably much more detailed medical studies. — Soap — 12:56, 21 December 2022 (UTC)
 * @user:Soap You are absolutely right. Now, I might say that I could have been more precise, if I wanted to hide the real reason. The truth is I did it to make my argument stronger, which was unfair of me. By the way, another word in the source is "alter": . The question is whether permanently modified (altered) neurons are completely useless. Maybe they still partly cooperate with other neurons or - conversely -  they interfere in communication between other neurons, which would be even worse than in the case of dead neurons. "only modify", as you wrote, suggests that the situation is not so bad, and probably you are right, especially when those neurons were modified only slightly. On the other hand, try to make a very small modification to a computer program, though, of course, this is not the best comparison. Anyway, I really appreciate your post. Thank you :-) 85.193.215.210 (talk) 13:17, 22 December 2022 (UTC)