Is there acute tolerance to alcohol at steady state?
Although acute tolerance to the psychomotor impairment caused by alcohol has been documented in single-dose studies, the pharmacodynamic effects of continued alcohol administration in humans have not been well studied. Six nonalcoholic men received alcohol to achieve and maintain breath alcohol levels of 80-100 mg/dl for 6 hr. The men suffered an initial impairment in word recall but improved over the next 6 hr. Measures of standing steadiness and manual tracking did not show evidence of the development of tolerance. This lack of tolerance was reflected in subjects’ self-assessments of sedation and intoxication.
