ArticleBiological psychiatry2010
Sex differences in striatal dopamine release in young adults after oral alcohol challenge: a positron emission tomography imaging study with [¹¹C]raclopride.
Article in Biological psychiatry, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 96 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
96 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 224 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pharmacological and non-pharmacological modulation of striatal dopamine release: a meta-analysis of [Molecular psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Effects of Alcohol on EEG Activity: A Systematic Review Focused on Sex-Related Differences in Youth.Current neuropharmacology · 2025Pooled it
- Animal studies reveal that the ghrelin pathway regulates alcohol-mediated responses.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Pooled it
- Prevalence and associated factors for alcohol use disorder among tuberculosis patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis study.Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy · 2021Pooled it
- The prevalence and factors associated with alcohol use disorder among people living with HIV/AIDS in Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy · 2020Pooled it
- The prevalence of alcohol use disorders among people living with HIV/AIDS: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy · 2019Pooled it
- Alcohol-induced changes in mesostriatal resting-state functional connectivity are linked to sensation seeking in young adults.Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2023Trial
- The neurobiological markers of acute alcohol's subjective effects in humans.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2022Trial
- Nicotine Patch Alters Patterns of Cigarette Smoking-Induced Dopamine Release: Patterns Relate to Biomarkers Associated With Treatment Response.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2022Trial
- Acute effects of alcohol on social and personal decision making.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2022Trial
- Striatal activation to monetary reward is associated with alcohol reward sensitivity.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2021Trial
- Further human evidence for striatal dopamine release induced by administration of ∆9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC): selectivity to limbic striatum.Psychopharmacology · 2015Trial
- Comparative Ethanol-Induced Potentiation of Stimulatory Responses to Dexmethylphenidate Versus Methylphenidate.Journal of clinical psychopharmacology · 2015Trial
- Conditioned preference to a methamphetamine-associated contextual cue in humans.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2013Trial
- Effects of naltrexone on smoking cessation outcomes and weight gain in nicotine-dependent men and women.Journal of clinical psychopharmacology · 2012Trial
- Review
- Translational evidence for increased central amygdala IL-6 activity in alcohol dependence.Journal of neuroinflammation · 2026Article
- Article
- Exploring gender differences in tobacco cue-induced craving and heart rate variability in individuals with a tobacco use disorder.Drug and alcohol dependence reports · 2026Article
- Dopamine D2S/D2L Receptor Regulation of Alcohol-Induced Reward and Signalling.Addiction biology · 2025Article
36 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundWe used a positron emission tomography paradigm with the D2/3 radiotracer [¹¹C]raclopride and an alcohol challenge to examine the magnitude of alcohol-induced dopamine release and compare it between young men and women.
methodsTwenty-one nonalcohol-dependent young social drinkers completed two positron emission tomography scans on separate days following ingestion of a juice mix containing either ethanol (.75 mg/kg body water) or trace ethanol only. The extent of dopamine released after alcohol was estimated by the percentage difference in [¹¹C]raclopride binding potential (ΔBP(ND)) between days.
resultsAlcohol administration significantly displaced [¹¹C]raclopride in all striatal subregions, indicating dopamine release, with the largest effect observed in the ventral striatum. Linear mixed model analysis across all striatal subregions of regional ΔBP(ND) with region of interest as repeated measure showed a highly significant effect of sex (p < .001). Ventrostriatal dopamine release in men, but not in women, showed a significant positive correlation to alcohol-induced measures of subjective activation. Furthermore, we found a significant negative correlation between the frequency of maximum alcohol consumption per 24 hours and ventrostriatal ΔBP(ND) (r = .739, p = .009) in men.
conclusionsThis study provides definitive evidence that oral alcohol induces dopamine release in nonalcoholic human subjects and shows sex differences in the magnitude of this effect. The ability of alcohol to stimulate dopamine release may contribute to its rewarding effects and, thereby, to its abuse liability in humans. Our report further suggests several biological mechanisms that may mediate the difference in vulnerability for alcoholism between men and women.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.