The Effects of Aliphatic Alcohols on the Biophysical and Biochemical Correlates of Membrane Function

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Abstract
The mechanism by which aliphatic alcohols produce depression of the central nervous system (CNS) is not yet understood. Any proposed mechanism should conform to at least the following criteria: (a) biophysical and biochemical changes induced by alcohols have to occur at the sublethal concentrations found in vivo after alcohol ingestion and in physiologically important magnitudes to be considered relevant; (b) the time course of these changes must correlate with the appearance and disappearance of CNS depression and with changes in blood (brain) alcohol levels, since the time course of depression corresponds with these changes; (c) the increasing potency of alcohols with increasing lipid solubility must be explained; and (d) the changes involved must be relevant to mechanisms responsible for neuroexcitability.