The proposed Alcohol Research Center will focus on alcohol problems in the elderly. The central theme is that elderly persons demonstrate a heightened vulnerability to the causes and consequences of alcohol abuse. Social, psychological, behavioral, and biological antecedents and consequences of alcohol abuse will be studied in old and young alcoholics and nonalcoholics in descriptive and experimental research. Animal studies will determine the interaction between alcohol abuse and aging in producing pathological changes in several organ systems. The 11 Research Components comprise four categories formed according to the conceptual and/or methodological strategies employed to address the central theme. Epidemiological studies will determine the prevalence and incidence of alcohol abuse among elderly persons, and will assess the effects of different residential settings on alcohol use patterns in retired persons. In a longitudinal design, psychosocial studies will measure behavioral activity patterns before and after retirement in elderly persons without alcohol problems. Post-retirement changes in drinking behavior will be related to pre- and post-retirement activity patterns in order to develop predictors of late-life onset of alcohol abuse. Psychobiological studies will measure cognitive functioning through neuropsychological tests and cortical evoked potential methods. Comparisons will be made between old and young alcoholics and nonalcoholics and brain-damaged patients on these measures. Another study will directly measure sleep patterns in elderly persons and will evaluate the interaction between age and alcohol use in producing sleep disruption. The functional-cellular research components will employ histological, biochemical, biophysical, and electrophysical measurement techniques to describe the deleterious impact of alcohol abuse on the aged organism. A rat model of chronic alcohol abuse will be developed to study the effects of alcohol and aging on central nervous system synaptic receptors and membranes, hippocampus structure and function, cardiovascular function, and alterations in the functional properties of blood cells. Other studies will investigate these same phenomena in human brain and blood tissue.
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