The Effect of Acute and Chronic Ethanol on Dopamine Turnover in the Caudate Nucleus of the Rat

It is ge nerally bel ieved that acute and chro nic e thanol (EtO H) ad ministra-tion alters th e ac t ivity of ca techolam ines in the brain, however, th e specific effects of EtO H on th e dopam inergic system are disputed ( I). Acute EtOH ad m inis tration has been vari ously reported to decrease (2,3), increase (4,5) , and ca use no change (6,7) in dopamine (DA) synthesis and turnover. Lik ewise, chronic EtO H treatmen ts have been reported to decrease (2,8) and increase (9, I0) DA synthesis and turnover. Many of these apparently co nflicting results are ex plained by the use of d ifferent anima l models (rat (2, 3,6,7, I0) , rabbi t (6), and mouse (4,5,9», different meth ods of EtO H ad min ist ration (intraperitoneal (3,4,6,7), oral (2,5) , and inh ala tio n (9», and no assurance of a lcoho lic depen-dence with ch ron ic ex posure (2, I0). Furth er, the majority of th ese stu d ies were ca rr ied out prior to th e development of a very se nsitive h igh per for mance liquid ch romatography (H PLC) tech nique which ca n detect minute amounts of DA, d ih yrox yphenylalan ine (DO PA) , and di hydroxyp henylacetic acid (DO PAC) (11,12)