Addiction MedicineClinical ToxicologyPsychiatry

Acute Alcoholism: Clinical Dynamics & Risks

An authoritative academic guide to acute alcoholism, covering its pharmacokinetics, GABA/NMDA neurochemistry, clinical staging, diagnostics, and management.

memjavad
PUBLISHED
Scientifically Reviewed · Dr. Marwa Abd-Alazim · October 6, 2026
Medically & Scientifically Reviewed Verified: October 6, 2026
Dr. Marwa Abd-Alazim Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology • University of Kerbala
Review Criteria & Clinical Standards

This content undergoes rigorous scientific peer-review and medical editorial standards at Arab Psychology Network to ensure clinical accuracy, validity, and compliance with evidence-based guidelines from leading psychological and healthcare authorities (APA / WHO).

Acute alcoholism, clinically recognized as acute alcohol intoxication or ethanol toxicity, represents a transient yet potentially lethal physiological and behavioral state induced by the rapid consumption of intoxicating volumes of ethyl alcohol. This acute toxidrome disrupts homeostatic neurochemical equilibrium, primarily acting through central nervous system depression to impair cognitive, psychomotor, and autonomic processes. Understanding the multifactorial pathogenesis, diagnostic stratifications, and life-saving interventions of acute ethanol intoxication is paramount for clinical practitioners, toxicologists, and public health professionals worldwide.

Acute Alcoholism

1. Concise Definition

Acute alcoholism is a temporary clinical condition characterized by dose-dependent neurocognitive, psychomotor, and behavioral disturbances resulting from the acute ingestion of intoxicating quantities of ethanol. The condition is mediated by direct depressant action on the central nervous system, producing systemic metabolic alterations and physiological destabilization. In severe presentations, acute alcoholism escalates into acute ethanol toxicity or alcohol poisoning, a medical emergency marked by obtundation, respiratory depression, cardiovascular collapse, and potential mortality.

Unlike chronic alcohol use disorder, which describes enduring patterns of neuroadaptation, dependence, and compulsive behavior, acute alcoholism refers specifically to the immediate biological and neuropsychological consequences of an acute intoxication event. It presents along a broad spectrum, ranging from mild disinhibition, affective lability, and slight motor ataxia to profound stupor, coma, aspiration asphyxiation, and lethal central respiratory failure. The condition demands systematic clinical surveillance due to its capacity for rapid physiological deterioration and high association with intentional or unintentional traumatic injury.

2. Etymology & Linguistic Origin

The term “alcohol” traces its lineage to the Arabic al-kuhl, historically referencing a finely ground powder of stibnite or antimony sulfide used as cosmetic eye shadow. Through medieval alchemy, the term expanded to designate any sublimated vapor or essence obtained through fractional distillation, culminating in the Paracelsian phrase alcohol vini (the rectified spirit of wine). By the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, European chemical nomenclature standardized “alcohol” to specifically denote ethyl alcohol (ethanol, C2H5OH).

The nominalization “alcoholism” was coined in 1849 by the Swedish physician and toxicologist Magnus Huss in his seminal treatise Alcoholismus Chronicus, designed to establish the pathological systemic consequences of sustained ethanol abuse. The adjective “acute” derives from the Latin acutus (sharp, pointed, or piercing), used in medical nosology since antiquity to signify conditions marked by sudden onset, high severity, and brief duration. Thus, “acute alcoholism” emerged in nineteenth-century clinical medicine to differentiate instantaneous, severe intoxications from the progressive, systemic degeneration documented by Huss under chronic exposure.

3. Pronunciation & Grammatical Form

Pronunciation: /əˈkjuːt ˈælkəhɒˌlɪzəm/ (American English: /əˈkjuːt ˈælkəˌhɑːˌlɪzəm/).

Part of Speech: Compound noun phrase (mass/uncountable noun).

Grammatical Variants: The adjectival and participial forms include “acutely alcoholic” or “acutely intoxicated.” In contemporary psychiatric and toxicological nomenclature, it is frequently replaced by the formal diagnostic terms “acute alcohol intoxication” (coded under ICD-11 as 6C40.0) or “alcohol-induced acute toxidrome.” In medical charting, it is commonly referenced as “acute ethanol toxicity” or abbreviated as AET.

4. Detailed Conceptual Explanation

The pathophysiology of acute alcoholism is governed by the rapid kinetics of ethanol absorption, distribution, and biotransformation. Ethanol is a small, uncharged, water- and lipid-soluble molecule that diffuses rapidly across mucosal membranes throughout the gastrointestinal tract. Approximately twenty percent of an ingested dose undergoes passive diffusion across the gastric mucosa, while the remaining eighty percent is absorbed through the extensive surface area of the proximal small intestine (duodenum and jejunum). Absorption velocity is modulated by gastric emptying rates, mucosal vascularity, food content—particularly lipids and proteins—and alcohol concentration, with rates peaking at ethanol solutions between twenty and thirty percent by volume.

Upon entering the portal and systemic circulation, ethanol rapidly crosses the blood-brain barrier due to its amphiphilic character, equilibrating across total body water. Within the central nervous system, ethanol acts non-specifically and allosterically on multiple ligand-gated ion channels. Its principal inhibitory effect occurs through positive allosteric modulation of GABAA receptors. By binding to hydrophobic pockets within these pentameric complexes, ethanol enhances chloride conductance in response to endogenous gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), hyperpolarizing neuronal membranes and dampening action potential generation across the cerebral cortex, cerebellum, and reticular activating system.

Concurrently, ethanol exerts profound antagonistic actions on excitatory neurotransmission by non-competitively inhibiting N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA receptor) complexes, alongside kainate and AMPA ionotropic glutamate receptors. This dual-action dynamic—potentiating inhibitory GABAergic pathways while suppressing excitatory glutamatergic signaling—precipitates widespread cortical and subcortical depression. At escalating concentrations, this neuroinhibition extends rostrocaudally, first disrupting high-order prefrontal executive networks (resulting in emotional dysregulation, disinhibition, and cognitive attenuation), followed by cerebellar motor coordination circuits (ataxia, dysmetria, dysarthria), and ultimately the brainstem autonomic centers regulating respiration, cardiac output, and protective pharyngeal reflexes.

Hepatic elimination accounts for greater than ninety percent of ingested ethanol clearance, primarily driven by the cytosolic enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH), which oxidizes ethanol to acetaldehyde. Acetaldehyde is subsequently converted into acetate by mitochondrial aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH), which is eventually oxidized into water and carbon dioxide via the citric acid cycle. At low concentrations, the elimination follows first-order kinetics; however, upon saturation of hepatic ADH—typically occurring at low blood alcohol concentrations (BAC) around 0.02 to 0.05 g/dL—clearance shifts to zero-order (Michaelis-Menten) kinetics. In an average adult, this fixed metabolic rate eliminates approximately 15 to 20 mg/dL (0.015 to 0.020 g/dL) per hour. When ingestion rates outstrip the metabolic capacity of hepatic clearance pathways, systemic BAC surges, triggering life-threatening clinical manifestations.

5. Historical Development

The systematic study of acute ethanol toxicity has evolved across several centuries of medical history:

The Classical and Enlightenment Periods: While intoxication was documented by ancient Greek, Roman, and Mesopotamian observers as a moral or spiritual lapse, early physiological analyses emerged during the Enlightenment. Physicians such as Thomas Trotter in his 1804 doctoral dissertation, An Essay, Medical, Philosophical, and Chemical, on Drunkenness, argued that acute drunkenness was a legitimate medical disease of the nervous system, characterized by progressive sensorial paralysis.

The Mid-Nineteenth to Early Twentieth Century: Magnus Huss formally delineated between acute alcohol manifestations and prolonged tissue decay in 1849. Experimental pharmacology in the late nineteenth century, spearheaded by figures such as Rudolf Buchheim and Oswald Schmiedeberg, characterized ethanol as a classic narcotic agent that universally blunts cellular protoplasm. In 1932, Swedish chemist Erik Widmark revolutionized toxicological medicine by establishing mathematical equations (Widmark’s formula) that linked the volume of alcohol consumed, body mass, and gender-based distribution volumes directly to blood alcohol concentrations.

The Mid-to-Late Twentieth Century: The physiological understanding of acute alcoholism advanced significantly with the emergence of molecular neuroscience in the 1970s and 1980s. Early hypotheses postulated that ethanol exerted its effects via non-specific fluidization of neuronal lipid bilayer membranes (the Meyer-Overton hypothesis). However, pioneering patch-clamp studies demonstrated that ethanol acts selectively on explicit stereospecific protein domains on GABA-A and NMDA receptor complexes, formalizing the modern neurochemical paradigm.

Contemporary Twenty-First Century Frameworks: The classification of acute alcoholism has transitioned from broad symptomatic descriptions into rigorous diagnostic criteria codified within the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5-TR) and the World Health Organization International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11). Contemporary paradigms integrate the neuroinflammatory cascades of binge consumption, genetic polymorphisms in ADH/ALDH enzymes, and targeted emergency resuscitation algorithms for acute ethanol-induced cardiovascular collapse.

6. Theoretical Foundations

The academic study of acute alcoholism operates within an intersection of pharmacological, neurobiological, and behavioral frameworks:

The Neurochemical Allosteric Framework: This foundational model asserts that the behavioral symptoms of acute intoxication result from dose-dependent pharmacological disruption of inhibitory-excitatory neurochemical balances. The activation of GABA-A alpha-1, alpha-2, and delta subunit-containing receptors coupled with NMDA NR1/NR2B receptor inhibition produces a descending functional decortication. This explains why initial stages manifest as disinhibition (due to inhibition of inhibitory cortical interneurons) before descending into generalized sensory and autonomic depression.

The Attention Myopia Model: Proposed by Claude Steele and Robert Josephs, alcohol myopia theory posits that acute ethanol intoxication restricts an individual’s processing capacity, forcing cognitive focus exclusively onto the most salient, immediate environmental cues while blunting peripheral concerns, abstract risks, and internal inhibitions. This theoretical construct elucidates why acute alcoholism triggers aggressive outbursts, impulsive financial decisions, and high-risk sexual behaviors despite intact premorbid intelligence.

The Expectancy and Social-Cognitive Theory: Advanced by Alan Marlatt and colleagues, this framework delineates between the direct pharmacological properties of acute ethanol consumption and the psychological expectancies held by the individual. Placebo-controlled balanced-placebo designs have demonstrated that societal beliefs regarding how alcohol influences aggression, sociability, and sexual arousal can induce behavioral disinhibition even in the absence of physiological ethanol absorption, highlighting a biopsychosocial confluence in mild-to-moderate acute intoxication.

7. Key Components, Types & Dimensions

Acute alcoholism expresses distinct clinical phases, physiological dimensions, and idiosyncratic variants:

  • Mild Intoxication (BAC 0.01 – 0.05 g/dL): Sub-clinical to mild neurobehavioral changes; subtle impairments in divided attention, ocular tracking, and complex processing; subjective feelings of mild euphoria, muscle relaxation, and reduced social anxiety.
  • Moderate Intoxication (BAC 0.06 – 0.15 g/dL): Noticeable psychomotor impairment; motor ataxia, prolonged reaction latency, dysarthric speech, and nystagmus; emotional lability, sensory degradation, loss of risk-assessment processing, and behavioral disinhibition.
  • Severe Intoxication (BAC 0.16 – 0.30 g/dL): Major sensory and cognitive blunting; severe ataxia, visual diplopia, anterograde amnesia (“blackouts”), pronounced nausea and emesis, mental confusion, marked hypothermia risk, and increasing lethargy.
  • Acute Ethanol Poisoning / Life-Threatening Toxicity (BAC > 0.30 g/dL): Profound stupor descending into unarousable coma; central hypoventilation (respiratory rate under 8 breaths per minute or apneic episodes > 10 seconds), loss of protective gag and cough reflexes; hypothermia, arterial hypotension, metabolic acidosis, cardiorespiratory collapse, and death.
  • Pathological Intoxication (Alcohol Idiosyncratic Intoxication): An atypical condition where minimal ethanol ingestion induces acute, disproportionate violent delirium, extreme agitation, and autonomic hyperactivity, typically followed by exhaustion, prolonged sleep, and complete amnesia for the episode.

8. Examples & Illustrative Cases

Case Illustration 1: Severe Acute Intoxication with Respiratory Depression: A 19-year-old university student is brought to the emergency department via ambulance after participating in a binge-drinking hazing ritual involving multiple distilled spirit shots over two hours. Upon arrival, the patient is unresponsive to noxious stimuli, exhibiting a Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score of 6 (Eye: 1, Verbal: 1, Motor: 4). The physical exam reveals shallow, irregular respirations at 6 breaths per minute, pinpoint pupils with sluggish light reaction, cold clammy extremities, and a core body temperature of 34.8°C (94.6°F). Laboratory work reveals a serum ethanol level of 380 mg/dL (0.38 g/dL), profound metabolic lactic acidosis, and an elevated anion gap. The clinical team immediately initiates endotracheal intubation to secure the airway, active external rewarming, and intravenous fluid resuscitation, successfully mitigating lethal respiratory arrest.

Case Illustration 2: Acute Intoxication Complicated by Trauma: A 42-year-old male presents following a low-speed motor vehicle collision. The patient exhibits slurred speech, strong ethanol odor, belligerent behavior, and horizontal gaze nystagmus. His initial blood alcohol concentration is determined to be 0.21 g/dL. While initial physical assessment suggests simple moderate intoxication, the patient’s altered sensorium masks the severe abdominal pain typically associated with internal injury. A focused abdominal ultrasound and subsequent CT scan reveal a grade II splenic laceration and hemoperitoneum. This case demonstrates how the analgesic and cognitive-blunting properties of acute alcoholism obscure acute surgical pathology.

9. Measurement & Assessment

The clinical assessment and quantification of acute alcoholism rely on combined physical examinations, biometric technologies, and laboratory diagnostics:

Biometric and Breath Analysis: In field, forensic, and urgent settings, breath alcohol concentration (BrAC) is measured using infrared spectrophotometry or electrochemical fuel-cell sensor breathalyzers. These instruments calculate alveolar ethanol content, converting it to an estimated systemic blood alcohol concentration via an assumed blood-to-breath partition ratio of approximately 2100:1. While non-invasive and rapid, accuracy can be confounded by ambient temperature, residual oral alcohol, lung volumes, and altered hematocrit levels.

Laboratory Serum Testing: The gold standard in medical diagnostics is direct venous blood analysis. Hospital laboratories typically utilize enzymatic assays based on alcohol dehydrogenase conversion with spectrophotometric detection of reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) at 340 nm, or head-space gas chromatography (GC-FID), which provides forensic-grade precision. Serum alcohol levels are generally 1.10 to 1.15 times higher than whole blood concentrations due to differences in water content between plasma and cellular components.

Clinical Scoring Metrics: The baseline severity of physiological impairment is standardized using validated clinical instruments:

  • The Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS): Essential for grading levels of consciousness and identifying the threshold for protective airway management (typically indicated when GCS ≤ 8).
  • The Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment for Alcohol (CIWA-Ar): Used when acute intoxication wanes to identify and manage the emergence of rebound autonomic hyperactivity and alcohol withdrawal syndromes.
  • Standardized Field Sobriety Testing (SFST): Utilized predominantly in forensic contexts, evaluating the horizontal gaze nystagmus (HGN), walk-and-turn (WAT), and one-leg stand (OLS) paradigms to determine motor and cognitive degradation.

10. Applications & Practical Significance

The clinical management of acute alcoholism represents a cornerstone of emergency medicine, clinical toxicology, and public safety:

Emergency Medical Resuscitation: In acute ethanol poisoning, treatment is predominantly supportive, focused on maintaining airway patency, oxygenation, and hemodynamic stability. There is no clinically approved pharmacological antagonist for ethanol (such as naloxone for opioids or flumazenil for benzodiazepines); agents historically tested, like flumazenil, have proved ineffective or hazardous for primary ethanol toxicity. Clinicians must actively guard against positional asphyxia, emetic aspiration, hypothermia, and alcohol-induced hypoglycemia (caused by NADH-mediated inhibition of hepatic gluconeogenesis).

Diagnostic Vigilance and Masked Pathology: Acute intoxication often co-occurs with trauma, co-ingestions, or underlying medical decompensation. The presence of ethanol must never be assumed to be the sole cause of altered mental status. Diagnostic evaluation frequently necessitates neuroimaging (head CT) to exclude traumatic subdural hematomas, metabolic profiling to identify diabetic ketoacidosis or hepatic encephalopathy, and toxicology panels to evaluate concurrent consumption of central nervous system depressants, such as opioids, barbiturates, or benzodiazepines.

Public Policy and Forensic Jurisprudence: Understanding the pharmacokinetic profile of acute alcoholism underpins statutory legal limits for operating motor vehicles, aircraft, and heavy machinery. Most jurisdictions enforce legal BAC limits between 0.02 and 0.08 g/dL. Furthermore, toxicological retro-extrapolation (using Widmark calculations) is frequently deployed in forensic pathology to establish blood concentrations at the time of an infraction or post-mortem.

11. Research & Empirical Evidence

Decades of neurobiological and epidemiological research have clarified the extensive systemic mechanisms of acute ethanol exposure:

Cerebellar and Motor Impairment: Landmark investigations by Lovinger et al. demonstrated that acute ethanol directly inhibits the induction of long-term depression (LTD) and synaptic plasticity within the cerebellar Purkinje networks. These laboratory findings correlate directly with clinical observations of gait dysmetria, kinetic tremors, and delayed psychomotor reflexes at BACs exceeding 0.08 g/dL.

Binge Drinking and Neuroinflammation: Recent preclinical models documented by Crews and Nixon illustrate that acute, high-volume ethanol exposure triggers immediate neuroinflammatory cascades. Elevated ethanol concentrations stimulate microglial Toll-like receptors (TLR4), releasing pro-inflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and interleukin-1 beta (IL-1beta). This neuroimmune activation drives cellular edema, structural microstructural alterations in the hippocampus, and subsequent memory encoding deficits (blackouts).

Synergistic Toxicities: Clinical research by White, Hingson, and colleagues emphasizes the exponential mortality risk observed when acute ethanol is co-administered with other sedatives. Simultaneous exposure to benzodiazepines or opioids exponentially amplifies GABAergic chloride hyperpolarization and brainstem opioid-receptor-mediated respiratory suppression, causing fatal respiratory arrest at markedly lower BACs than those required for lethal ethanol toxicity alone.

12. Cultural & Cross-Cultural Considerations

The presentation, interpretation, and public health impact of acute alcoholism vary markedly across global cultural landscapes:

Genetic Polymorphisms and Metabolic Disparities: Genetic variations in ethanol-metabolizing enzymes significantly influence the susceptibility to acute alcoholism. High prevalences of the atypical aldehyde dehydrogenase allele (ALDH2*2) among East Asian populations lead to deficient enzymatic breakdown of acetaldehyde. Upon acute ethanol ingestion, affected individuals experience rapid acetaldehyde accumulation, resulting in the alcohol flushing syndrome—characterized by facial erythema, tachycardia, nausea, headache, and severe discomfort—which functions as a protective genetic barrier against heavy consumption.

Sociocultural Drinking Patterns: Sociological frameworks distinguish between “wet” cultures (often observed in Mediterranean regions), where alcohol is historically integrated into daily meals with lower rates of acute severe drunkenness, and “dry” cultures (historically observed in Northern European, Anglo-American, and parts of Eastern European settings), where alcohol consumption occurs less frequently but is heavily concentrated in binge episodes designed to achieve rapid, extreme intoxication. These cultural norms directly govern emergency department admission rates for acute ethanol toxicity.

Cultural Display Rules and Behavioral Manifestations: Cross-cultural psychology demonstrates that the behavioral expressions of acute intoxication—such as outward physical aggression, loud emotionality, or silent stupor—are not universally dictated by pharmacology alone. MacAndrew and Edgerton’s classic anthropological study, Drunken Comportment, revealed that societies systematically instruct their members on which disinhibited behaviors are socially excusable under acute drunkenness, proving that behavioral phenotypes are shaped by both pharmacology and culture.

13. Criticisms, Debates & Limitations

Despite centuries of scientific analysis, diagnostic and therapeutic controversies surround acute alcoholism:

The Fallacy of Rapid ‘Sobering’ Agents: A recurring clinical debate centers on historical efforts to identify an acute “sobering agent” or ethanol antagonist. Compounds like caffeine, metadoxine, and central analeptic stimulants have been investigated, but none reliably reverse ethanol-induced cognitive and psychomotor deficits. The dangerous practice of combining highly caffeinated energy drinks with alcohol creates a state of “wide-awake drunkenness,” where users perceive a false sense of cognitive competence despite severe physiological and motor impairment.

The Stigmatization of Emergency Department Presentations: Medical ethicists and critical care researchers have criticized persistent provider biases toward patients presenting with acute alcoholism. Individuals arriving with acute intoxication are frequently categorized as “difficult” or disruptive, which can lead to premature diagnostic overshadowing—a phenomenon where serious co-occurring injuries (such as traumatic brain injury, occult sepsis, or chemical ingestion) are misattributed entirely to uncomplicated alcohol intoxication.

Nomenclature Inconsistencies: Debates persist within psychiatric nosology regarding the diagnostic terminology separating “intoxication,” “poisoning,” and “overdose.” While clinical toxicologists favor “acute ethanol poisoning” to communicate life-threatening biological toxicity, psychiatric nomenclatures like the DSM-5 continue to use “alcohol intoxication,” which some scholars argue diminishes the perceived clinical severity of near-fatal binge events.

14. Related Terms & Distinctions

Precision in clinical practice requires delineating acute alcoholism from related diagnoses:

  • Chronic Alcoholism (Alcohol Use Disorder – AUD): Chronic alcoholism describes a prolonged, relapsing neurobehavioral disease characterized by compulsive alcohol seeking, physiological tolerance, neuroadaptation, and visceral withdrawal upon cessation. Acute alcoholism refers exclusively to an isolated, immediate episode of systemic intoxication, which can happen in individuals without chronic dependence.
  • Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome (AWS): The hyper-adrenergic, hyperexcitable physiological rebound that emerges when chronic alcohol consumption is abruptly reduced or stopped. In contrast, acute alcoholism is characterized by central nervous system depression, not rebound excitation.
  • Pathological Intoxication: An atypical, rare reaction marked by explosive violence, transient psychosis, or disorientation after ingesting tiny amounts of alcohol that would not normally produce intoxication in the average individual.
  • Sedative-Hypnotic Overdose: Overdoses induced by benzodiazepines, barbiturates, or non-benzodiazepine hypnotics (Z-drugs). While presenting with nearly identical clinical signs of GCS depression, ataxia, and respiratory compromise, they exhibit distinctive pharmacological targets and specific reversal options (such as flumazenil for pure benzodiazepine exposures).
  • Wernicke Encephalopathy: An acute, thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency syndrome often seen in chronic alcohol abuse, presenting with the classical triad of acute confusion, ophthalmoplegia/nystagmus, and ataxia. While it may coincide with an acute drinking episode, it is a distinct neurological metabolic emergency requiring prompt parenteral thiamine replacement.

15. Summary / Key Takeaways

Acute alcoholism represents an acute, dose-dependent central nervous system toxidrome resulting from the biological actions of ethyl alcohol. Driven by allosteric activation of inhibitory GABA-A pathways and concurrent suppression of excitatory NMDA glutamate receptors, the condition progresses along a continuous physiological continuum from emotional disinhibition and psychomotor ataxia to unarousable coma, hypothermia, respiratory failure, and fatal asphyxiation.

The clinical assessment of acute alcoholism hinges on blood and breath ethanol metrics, structured consciousness staging via the Glasgow Coma Scale, and vigilant monitoring to detect underlying or masked traumatic injuries. Because no pharmacological ethanol reversal agent exists, therapy remains supportive, focused on airway maintenance, aspiration prevention, cardiovascular stabilization, and metabolic correction. Understanding the pharmacokinetic boundaries, metabolic nuances, and cultural factors surrounding acute alcoholism is essential for reducing alcohol-related morbidity and mortality across contemporary society.

References

  • American Psychiatric Association. (2022). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed., text rev.; DSM-5-TR). American Psychiatric Publishing.
  • Babor, T. F., Higgins-Biddle, J. C., Saunders, J. B., & Monteiro, M. G. (2001). AUDIT: The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test: Guidelines for use in primary care (2nd ed.). World Health Organization.
  • Lovinger, D. M., White, G., & Weight, F. F. (1989). Ethanol inhibits NMDA-activated ion current in reconstructed hippocampal neurons. Science, 243(4899), 1721–1724.
  • MacAndrew, C., & Edgerton, R. B. (1969). Drunken comportment: A social explanation. Aldine Publishing Company.
  • Steele, C. M., & Josephs, R. A. (1990). Alcohol myopia: Its prized and dangerous effects. American Psychologist, 45(8), 921–933.
  • Widmark, E. M. P. (1932). Die theoretischen Grundlagen und die praktische Verwendbarkeit der gerichtlich-medizinischen Alkoholbestimmung. Urban & Schwarzenberg.
  • World Health Organization. (2019). International statistical classification of diseases and related health problems (11th ed.; ICD-11). World Health Organization.

Cite This Article

memjavad (2026, October 6). Acute Alcoholism: Clinical Dynamics & Risks. PSYCHOLOGICAL DATABASE. https://en.arabpsychology.com/dictionary/acute-alcoholism-clinical-dynamics/
memjavad. “Acute Alcoholism: Clinical Dynamics & Risks.” PSYCHOLOGICAL DATABASE, 6 October 2026, https://en.arabpsychology.com/dictionary/acute-alcoholism-clinical-dynamics/.
memjavad. “Acute Alcoholism: Clinical Dynamics & Risks.” PSYCHOLOGICAL DATABASE. October 6, 2026. https://en.arabpsychology.com/dictionary/acute-alcoholism-clinical-dynamics/.