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Alcohol prevents getting rid of fears
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Scientists have already proved the connection between alcoholism and mental disorders, in particular posttraumatic anxiety disorder. The causes of these mental traumas can be individual-personal (divorce, loss of a loved one), general (disaster, war), and also associated with technological and natural factors.
Strongly drinking people are at greater risk of getting a traumatic disorder, for example, involvement in a traffic accident or incident of domestic violence, but this only partially explains the relationship with alcohol.
The results of studies conducted by a team of specialists from the National Institute of Alcoholism in Bethesda (USA) and the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill (USA) were presented in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
"Our goal was to find out how a person is recovering from an event that traumatized his psyche," says co-author Thomas Cash. "We came to the conclusion that the regular abuse of alcohol depresses the cognitive abilities of the brain and reduces the ability to control the emotional center."
During the research, scientists for a month monitored the changes that occur in the brains of mice with chronic alcoholism.
The experimental animals were divided into two groups, one of which lived in cells saturated with vapors of alcohol, and the second - under normal conditions.
Saturation of cells in pairs specialists maintained in such a concentration that the subjects were in a constant state of intoxication. The dose of alcohol in their blood was twice the allowable dose for drivers of vehicles.
After the first stage of the experiment, the specialists proceeded to the next phase - the mice were transplanted into a cage, where a current was fed to the metal floor after the sound signal. Several "electric sessions" formed a psychological trauma in animals. They were afraid of sound even when the current was not following it.
The conditions in which the mice fell were similar to human posttraumatic disorder, when a person has a problem with overcoming his fears even after the danger has already passed.
A further goal of the scientists was the elimination of fear with the help of the so-called "rewriting" method of memory. The meaning of this method is to recreate all the conditions that have traumatized the person, with the only difference being that as a result there is no consequence that caused the trauma. Thus, from the memory of a person negative sensations are superseded, and fear ceases to overcome him.
According to project manager Andrew Holmes, the animals from the control group gradually stopped being afraid of the sound signal, which can not be said about their fellow "alcoholics". This group of mice continued to react to the sounds being issued while waiting for the current to flow.
Experts believe that the cause of this disorder is associated with a high concentration of alcohol in the blood, which leads to interruptions or interlocking of the neurons that take part in the "rewriting" of memory.
"This discovery gives an idea not only of the negative impact of alcohol on overcoming fear and anxiety, but will also help in further studying its effect on the functioning of certain specific areas of the brain," concluded Dr. Holmes.
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