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Behavioral and Endocrine Interactions between Thyrotropin‐Releasing Hormone and Ethanol in Normal Human Subjects
Author(s) -
Garbutt James C.,
Hicks Robert E.,
Clayton Claudia J.,
Andrews Roger T.,
Mason George A.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
alcoholism: clinical and experimental research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.267
H-Index - 153
eISSN - 1530-0277
pISSN - 0145-6008
DOI - 10.1111/j.1530-0277.1991.tb05209.x
Subject(s) - placebo , thyrotropin releasing hormone , disinhibition , prolactin , ethanol , endocrinology , hormone , medicine , psychology , dose , depressant , trh stimulation test , chemistry , neuroscience , psychiatry , biochemistry , alternative medicine , pathology
Thyrotropin‐releasing hormone (TRH) has been shown to antagonize the depressant effects of ethanol in animals, but conflicting findings have been reported in humans. To test whether TRH counteracts any of a variety of ethanol‐sensitive behavioral measures in normal human subjects and for an effect of ethanol on TRH‐induced thyro‐tropin (TSH) and prolactin (PRL) response, we administered TRH (500 μg) or placebo over 1 min intravenously, 30 min after subjects had ingested 0.8 g/kg of ethanol or a placebo drink. Blood samples for TSH and PRL were drawn prior to and 15 and 30 min after injection. Eight male subjects were studied in a balanced, cross over design with each subject receiving placebo‐placebo, TRH‐placebo, placebo‐ethanol, and TRH‐ethanol. Whereas ethanol had signlficant and expected effects on subjective measures, memory, disinhibition, reaction time and time perception, TRH failed to coun teract any ethanol effect, except for a small effect in one memory task. Similarly, no effect of ethanol on TRH‐induced TSH or PRL response was found. Though the behavioral findings could be inter preted to indicate that TRH does not alter ethanol sensitive behaviors in humans it will be necessary to utilize higher dosages of TRH and/ or TRH analogues before firmly drawing this conclusion.