Urinary excretion of methanol and 5-hydroxytryptophol as biochemical markers of recent drinking in the hangover state

Abstract — Twenty healthy social drinkers (9 women and 11 men) drank either 50 g of ethanol (mean intake 0.75 g/kg) or 80 g (mean 1.07 g/kg) according to choice as white wine or export beer in the evening over 2 h with a meal. After the end of dnnking, at bedume. in the following morning after waking-up, and on two further occasions during the morning and early afternoon, breath-alcohol tests were performed and samples of urine were collected for analysis of ethanol and methanol and the 5-hydroxytryptophol (5-HTOL) to 5-hydroxyindol-3-ylacetic acid (5-HIAA) ratio The participants were also asked to quantify the intensity of hangover symptoms (headache, nausea, anxiety, drowsiness, fatigue, muscle aches, vertigo) on a scale from 0 (no symptoms) to 5 (severe symptoms). The first moming urine void collected 6-11 h after bedtime as a rule contained measurable amounts of ethanol, being 0.09 ± 0.03 g/1 (mean ± SD) after 50 g and 0.38 ± 0.1 g/1 after 80 g ethanol. The corresponding breath-alcohol concentrations were zero, except for three individuals who registered 0.01-0.09 g/1. Ethanol was not measurable in urine samples collected later in the moming and early afternoon. The peak urinary methanol occurred in the first moming void, when the mean concentration after 80 g ethanol was ~ 6-fold higher than pre-dnnking values. This compares with a ~ 50-fold increase for the 5-HTOL/5-HIAA ratio in the first moming void. Both methanol and the 5-HTOL/5-HIAA ratio remaine