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Effects of Alcohol on the Neuron

  • Chapter
The Biology of Alcoholism

Abstract

It should be made clear at once that the nature of the ensuing discussion is deliberately limited. Consideration of the effects of alcohols on cerebral neurons (or stated another way, cerebral effects of alcohols at the cellular and subcellular levels) necessitates taking a quite specific point of view. The latter is based on certain assumptions, some of which can be stated, as well as on the setting up of arbitrary limits or boundaries with regard to both data and theory (or, depending on the degree of libidinal investment, with regard to both fact and fancy). The limits are particularly obvious if the concept of “behavior” is involved; this is certainly the primary interest of psychiatrists and psychologists dealing with the use of alcohol consumed either occasionally or chronically. For present purposes, i.e., in the neurophysiologic or neurobiologic frame of reference, behavior is also a central issue, but in more than the usual sense. The neurophysiologist, in other words, hopes, in time, to understand the effects of alcohol on the total organism (alone and in its relationships to others), but focuses his investigative efforts on least suborders of behaviors:

  1. 1.

    Effects of alcohols on the integrated activity of the nervous system

  2. 2.

    Effects of alcohols on behavior of specific of the central nervous system

  3. 3.

    Effects of alcohols on behavior of the neuron (the functional unit of the nervous system) and its junctions with other neurons.

This chapter was written in the spring of 1970.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Neurobiology Psychiatric Institute, University of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

    Robert G. Grenell (Professor and Director)

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  1. Robert G. Grenell
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Alcoholism and Drug Dependence Department of Psychiatry, State University of New York Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York, USA

    Benjamin Kissin  & Henri Begleiter  & 

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© 1972 Plenum Press, New York

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Grenell, R.G. (1972). Effects of Alcohol on the Neuron. In: Kissin, B., Begleiter, H. (eds) The Biology of Alcoholism. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-0895-9_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-0895-9_1

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4684-0897-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4684-0895-9

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