Alcohol and Hormones

Alcoholism, the oldest addictive illness, remains a serious problem because of its major modifications of many physiological systems. The genetic and neurological origins and mechanisms are complex and only partly understood. However, it is clear that alcohol use modifies the production of most hormones, directly and indirectly modulating the systems that hormones regulate. Acute and chronic alcohol consumption affects virtually all cellular functions of tissues like brain, liver, immune system, and reproductive and endocrine organs. The latter have major regula­ tory roles, affecting many functions from development to repro­ duction. Although stress can further modify alcohol's effects on hormone production, it significantly causes most of alcohol's modi­ fications of the body to occur via changes in hormone production and secretion. Ronald R. Watson vii Contributors Michael L. Adams • Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO Robert A. Anderson, Jr .• Ob/Gyn Research, Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center, Chicago,IL Kasibhatla Bhavani • Molecular Heptology Laboratory, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA Theodore J. Cicero • Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St.

In Alcohol and Hormones, leading researchers concisely review what is known about each human hormone system and how these systems are affected by alcohol use, and to a lesser extent, by other drugs of abuse. The contributors show clearly just how the body is regulated and how its normal functioning can be changed by alcohol. Major topics covered range from alcohol-stress interactions and the effects of alcohol on vitamin A metabolism (fetal alcohol syndrome and neural tube development) to how alcohol blocks the release of various peptide hormones, to its effects on puberty-related events in the female. There are also articles about how alcohol affects the control of body temperature, the impact of alcohol on male sexual development during puberty, the role of TRH in alcohol use disorders, and the possibility for a neuro-endocrinological component in alcoholism. Alcohol and Hormones will be of interest to biomedical and alcohol researchers, neurobiologists, endocrinologists, pharmacologists, psychiatrists, and some clinicians interested in a deeper understanding of the effects of alcohol on the body.