United States Department of Transportation
i
Acute Tolerance to Behavioral Impairment by Alcohol in Moderate and Heavy Drinkers
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1974-04-01
[PDF-2.83 MB]
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Edition:Final report
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Abstract:The literature reports greater impairment effects of a given Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) during the rising than during the falling BAC periods. This may be termed acute tolerance to contrast it with chronic tolerance built up over a long period of regular drinking. Because of failure to control pertinent variables, prior studies have not established the reliability of the phenomenon or permitted quantitative estimates of the impairment at various BAC levels. In the design of the present experiment, specific attention was paid to obtaining BAC estimates that would be unaffected by differences between arterial and venous BAC levels, to applying techniques to control for practice effects, and to using rates of administration of alcohol that would be typical of normal drinking patterns. A total of 40 subjects were examined on five behavioral measures at approximately .02% BAC intervals on both the rising and falling BAC curves. Twenty subjects were moderate drinkers tested to a maximum of .10% BAC and 20 subjects were heavy drinkers tested to a maximum of .15% BAC. Under these controlled conditions, for a given BAC, greater impairment was found during the rising BAC period than during the falling BAC period; this finding was consistent and statistically significant but is of little practical importance. Differences in impairment were equivalent to a change in BAC level of .01% to .02%. Performance differences due to past drinking practices (chronic tolerance) were far greater. It is of theoretical significance, however, that the degree of acute tolerance developed by chronic heavy drinkers was as great as or greater than that found for moderate drinkers, suggesting different mechanisms for acute and chronic tolerance. /Abstract from report summary page/
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