AJP - Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, Vol 244, Issue 4 568-R572, Copyright © 1983 by American Physiological Society
Effects of ethanol ingestion on thirst and fluid consumption in humans
G. Eisenhofer and R. H. Johnson
To investigate the effects of ethanol on thirst, fluid intake was measured
in 24 normal subjects for 3 h after consumption of 1.0 g/kg ethanol, with
or without administration of a vasopressin analogue (DDAVP) before ethanol
ingestion. Fluid consumption was reduced in subjects receiving DDAVP,
suggesting that thirst after ethanol is largely secondary to dehydration
due to inhibition of vasopressin release. Further, the effects of ethanol
on salt-load-elicited thirst and fluid consumption in normal subjects were
studied using intravenous hypertonic saline infusions. Subjects acted as
their own controls and received 0.5 or 1.0 ml/kg ethanol 30 min before
infusions on one day and an equal volume of fluid on another day. During
infusions after ethanol, subjects experienced thirst later and at higher
osmolalities. They also drank less immediately after infusions with prior
ethanol ingestion. The relationship between thirst score and plasma
osmolality was shifted to higher osmolalities by ethanol. Thus, although
ethanol progressively causes thirst secondary to dehydration, it has a
direct inhibitory effect on the thirst response to osmotic stimulation.
