Physiological Basis of Behavior

Alcohol abuse and alcoholism take a staggering toll on society and individuals affected either directly or indirectly by the disease. Annually the costs to society in the U.S. are approximately $185 billion. Traditionally, psychosocial explanations of alcohol abuse and alcoholism have been the basis for prevention and treatment. Nevertheless, a crop of new research over the past decade demonstrates a biogenetic and physiological root cause for alcohol seeking behavior and alcoholism. This research study proposes an experiment with the purpose of determining the impact on brain chemistry and physiology from heavy alcohol consumption. Specifically, hamsters provided with alcoholic liquid are measured for enkephalin levels in the whole brain compared to a control group of hamsters provided with water only. The results of the experiment demonstrate that there is a strong correlation between heavy consumption of alcohol and lowered enkephalin levels. Such findings add to the general and growing support of recent research that there are biological and physiological root causes of alcohol abuse and alcoholism. Such research may lead to more targeted treatments that bolster psychosocial approaches that often fail to achieve abstinence in individuals subjected to them.

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d post-test design with before and after measurement of the independent variable. Methods The methodology will involve two randomly selected groups of hamsters, one a control group and the other the experimental group. The hamsters will be kept in cages for a period of six months. The control group of hamsters will be provided with only water for the six month period. The experimental group of hamsters will be given a water solution that will contain a certain percentage of alcohol. The hamsters will be measured before and after the experiment for enkephalin levels. According to Blum and Trachtenberg (1991), in one experiment "alcohol-preferring mice had whole brain enkephalin levels significantly lower than the alcohol-nonpreferring mice," (2). The design is meant to test the impact of heavy drinking on enkephalin levels in whole brains within the corpus striatum and hypothalamus. At the end of the six months, the hamsters in both the control and experimental groups will have their enkephalin levels measured in order to determine if the hamsters who drank the alcohol liquid have different enkephalin levels than the control group drinking water only. Data will be collected and analyzed in order to determine if heavy alco

Category: Psychology - P