Cerebral metabolism in problem drinkers under the influence of alcohol and chlorpromazine hydrochloride

¹ Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Psychiatry, University of California School of Medicine; and Cerebral Metabolic Research Laboratory, Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute, California State Department of Mental Hygiene, San Francisco, California

Cerebral blood flow and metabolism studies by means of the nitrous oxide method of Kety and Schmidt were made in males who had been problem drinkers for an average of 11 years. Patients having psychoses, neuropathies, hepatic insufficiency and avitaminosis were excluded prior to the first of two studies per patient. The first study was on the effect of the oral administration of 1 gm/kg of alcohol alone and the second was made after treatment with chlorpromazine for 1 week, at which time the procedure with alcohol was repeated. The chronic use of alcohol produces an alteration in the metabolism of glutamic acid in the central nervous system and in the content of glutamic and lactic acids in the arterial blood. Further, chlorpromazine administration for a week affects more cerebral and peripheral changes than have been established for a single dose before as well as after alcohol ingestion. Despite a multiplicity of effects with alcohol, including a pronounced change in behavior after chlorpromazine, the values for cerebral oxygen and glucose consumption are normal.