Alcohol Withdrawal Help to people who want to stop drinking
Experiments in 1955 demonstrated that alcohol-naive volunteers given continual alcohol for longer periods developed more severe withdrawal than those who drank for shorter periods. These results imply that most people are vulnerable to the effects of the abrupt cessation of prolonged, sustained ethanol intake. However, withdrawal usually does not occur in the general population because most people drink in an episodic fashion that does not lead to the sustained high blood concentrations of alcohol necessary to develop tolerance and withdrawal.
Symptoms of alcohol withdrawal occur because alcohol is a central nervous system depressant. Alcohol simultaneously enhances inhibitory tone (via modulation of gamma-aminobutyric acid activity) and inhibits excitatory tone (via modulation of excitatory amino acid activity). Only the constant presence of ethanol preserves homeostasis. Abrupt cessation unmasks the adaptive responses to chronic ethanol use resulting in overactivity of the central nervous system.
Gamma-aminobutyric acid — Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is the major inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain. Highly specific binding sites for ethanol are found on the GABA receptor complex