This preference for alcohol's taste and smell can make young people with a family history of drinking more likely to abuse alcohol themselves when combined with social pressures, risk-taking behavior and alcohol's addicting qualities, according to Steven Youngentob, Ph.D., author of one of the studies.
Preference for Taste of Alcohol
One of the studies showed a preference for the taste of alcohol in rats which were exposed to alcohol in the womb through their mother's consumption. The rats were tested at 15 days and 90 days after birth. Giving the choice of drinking ethanol or not, the alcohol-exposed rats drank significantly more than the control group.The study also revealed that this early preference for the taste of alcohol faded in adulthood.
In the second study, the researchers studied the effect of prenatal alcohol exposure and the smell of alcohol in rats. When exposed to ethanol odor, the prenatally exposed young rats sniffed it significantly more than control rats.
Preference Fades by Adulthood
"From a clinical perspective, an enhanced preference for ethanol odor may be an important contributor to the risk for an enhanced postnatal avidity for the drug," the authors wrote.Also in the second study, this preference for the smell of alcohol faded by adulthood. By the time the rats reached the human equivalent of 30 years, they no longer exhibited the preference.
Youngentob and his colleagues are focusing their research on defining the factors that contribute to the "perpetuating cycle of abuse from fetal exposure to adult abuse and back again."
Youngentob says the message from his research is two-fold: "Keep kids away from alcohol, especially those that had fetal exposure," he said. "The even more basic message is that there is no time during pregnancy when it is safe to drink."
The results shown in Youngentob's animal study have not yet been duplicated in studies with human subjects.
Sources:
Steven L. Youngentob, et. al. "The Effect of Gestational Ethanol Exposure on Voluntary Ethanol Intake in Early Postnatal and Adult Rats (PDF)" Behavioral Neuroscience. December 2007.
Steven L. Youngentob, et. al. "Experience-Induced Fetal Plasticity: The Effect of Gestational Ethanol Exposure on the Behavioral and Neurophysiologic Olfactory Response to Ethanol Odor in Early Postnatal and Adult Rats (PDF)" Behavioral Neuroscience. December 2007.
