TY - JOUR
T1 - To Infuse or Ingest in Human Laboratory Alcohol Research
AU - Cyders, Melissa A.
AU - Plawecki, Martin H.
AU - Corbin, William
AU - King, Andrea
AU - McCarthy, Denis M.
AU - Ramchandani, Vijay A.
AU - Weafer, Jessica
AU - O'Connor, Sean J.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 by the Research Society on Alcoholism
PY - 2020/4/1
Y1 - 2020/4/1
N2 - Human alcohol laboratory studies use two routes of alcohol administration: ingestion and infusion. The goal of this paper was to compare and contrast these alcohol administration methods. The work summarized in this report was the basis of a 2019 Research Society on Alcoholism Roundtable, “To Ingest or Infuse: A Comparison of Oral and Intravenous Alcohol Administration Methods for Human Alcohol Laboratory Designs.” We review the methodological approaches of each and highlight strengths and weaknesses pertaining to different research questions. We summarize methodological considerations to aid researchers in choosing the most appropriate method for their inquiry, considering exposure variability, alcohol expectancy effects, safety, bandwidth, technical skills, documentation of alcohol exposure, experimental variety, ecological validity, and cost. Ingestion of alcohol remains a common and often a preferable, methodological practice in alcohol research. Nonetheless, the main problem with ingestion is that even the most careful calculation of dose and control of dosing procedures yields substantial and uncontrollable variability in the participants' brain exposures to alcohol. Infusion methodologies provide precise exposure control but are technically complex and may be limited in ecological validity. We suggest that alcohol ingestion research may not be the same thing as alcohol exposure research; investigators should be aware of the advantages and disadvantages that the choice between ingestion and infusion of alcohol invokes.
AB - Human alcohol laboratory studies use two routes of alcohol administration: ingestion and infusion. The goal of this paper was to compare and contrast these alcohol administration methods. The work summarized in this report was the basis of a 2019 Research Society on Alcoholism Roundtable, “To Ingest or Infuse: A Comparison of Oral and Intravenous Alcohol Administration Methods for Human Alcohol Laboratory Designs.” We review the methodological approaches of each and highlight strengths and weaknesses pertaining to different research questions. We summarize methodological considerations to aid researchers in choosing the most appropriate method for their inquiry, considering exposure variability, alcohol expectancy effects, safety, bandwidth, technical skills, documentation of alcohol exposure, experimental variety, ecological validity, and cost. Ingestion of alcohol remains a common and often a preferable, methodological practice in alcohol research. Nonetheless, the main problem with ingestion is that even the most careful calculation of dose and control of dosing procedures yields substantial and uncontrollable variability in the participants' brain exposures to alcohol. Infusion methodologies provide precise exposure control but are technically complex and may be limited in ecological validity. We suggest that alcohol ingestion research may not be the same thing as alcohol exposure research; investigators should be aware of the advantages and disadvantages that the choice between ingestion and infusion of alcohol invokes.
KW - Alcohol Experiments
KW - Human Laboratory Research
KW - Intravenous Alcohol Infusion
KW - Oral Alcohol Ingestion
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85081722506&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1111/acer.14305
DO - 10.1111/acer.14305
M3 - Review article
C2 - 32056250
AN - SCOPUS:85081722506
SN - 0145-6008
VL - 44
SP - 764
EP - 776
JO - Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research
JF - Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research
IS - 4
ER -