Affects of Alcohol: Humans vs. Animals

According to Valenzula (2000), neurotransmitters are usually forms of chemicals which allow transmission of signals, especially from one neuron to the other across synapses. A neurotransmitter system usually does not function in isolation but interacts with a number of chemical compositions in the body. Alcohol as one of such compositions in the organizm, actively interacts with the neurotransmitters. This liquid has been shown to affect the brain function in terms of causing some delicate imbalance, in particular between the inhibitory and the excitatory neurotransmitters. In case of long-term exposure of alcohol, the brain usually tries to compensate through tilting of the balance back to the equilibrium (Valenzuela ). Neurotransmitters are usually found in both animals as well as a human being. These three articles consist of studies which were done to demonstrate the impact of alcohol on both human beings as well as animals.
“Treatment Outcomes for Alcohol Dependence among Middle-Aged and OlderAadults”
The study by Oslin, Slaymaker, Blow, Owen and Colleran 1431has provided a hypothesis that it would be very likely for an adult to abstain as well as remain committed to the outpatient treatment, especially after discharge from the program.The authors, in an effort to test the hypothesis, conducted a study with respect to Hanley-Hazelden and Center City Hazelden rehabilitation program. The scholars extracted data from a number of sources, which included the clinical chart data, as well as the administrative and quality improvement data. The data obtained was analyzed by the use of SPSS. In the interpretation, the descriptive analysis of the data included the means as along with the standard deviation for the variables.
The results of this paper found out that most of the patients had already spent a minimum of 25 days of the inpatient rehabilitation, whereby no much difference was established between the older adults when compared to the middle-aged adults. The findings made it possible to differentiate on their post-discharge treatmentconcerning the targeted groups.
The authors concluded that the results from the study demonstrated that those early post-discharge rates, especially on the abstinence and in the matters of improvement of life for older adults, had some similarity to those of the middle-aged adults, who received their treatment in a residential setting (Oslin et al. 1435).
From this research it was evident that the researchers were extremely focused on the matters of coming up with the reality about the treatment outcome of the alcohol dependence. They were able to choose the study area appropriately. Apart from focusing on the secondary data available in the charts, the authors could have paid some special attention to primary data from the affected individuals themselves. This factor would have had some impact on the result obtained from this research. The conclusion made did not encompass any individual in any setting, but only concentrated on the residential setting (Oslin et al.1435).
“Characteristics of Pregnant Women who Engage in Binge Alcohol Consumption”
In this paper, the authors hypothesized that the pregnant binge drinkers were more likely to be engaged in a number of other behaviors not related to alcohol drinking. However, those behaviors had the same potential to affect the outcome of pregnancy as well as adversely increase the risk for the fetus (Gladstone, Levy and Nulman 789).
In this research, the authors used all the women who received counseling from the clinic of the Motherisk Program and had a history of heavy alcohol consumption. This research established that a considerable proportion of women usually had almost 8 or even more drinks per binge on the average. The scholars concluded that more rigorous efforts should be put in place in order to prevent the socially accepted binge consumption of alcohol, especially among younger women who are sexually active (Gladstone, Levy and Nulman 793).
“The Effects of Alcohol on Agonistic Behavior in the Telomian Dog”
This exploration was designed with an aim of expanding the scope of the available research. the primary accent was put on the alcohol influence towards the agnostic behavior together with the social structure through examination of a number of aggressive behaviors. In this study, nine Telomian dogs were involved in the research procedure. These dogs were divided into groups, which consisted of one male and one female and were housed in one house. These groups of dogs were then given alcohol in small doses and the effect monitored progressively (Pettijohn 297).
As a result, the chi-square revealed that there was a very significant difference in bone possession time between the dogs in all the three groups. Therefore, this study the dogs which were housed together clearly demonstrated the dominance order . It was also evident that alcohol produced some differential effects, especially in the attack frequency, and had some dependence on the social rank as well (Pettijohn 300).Conclusion
After analyzing these articles, a number of similarities were established. The two articles involved human beings and one article highlighted the experiment with regard to animals. In the study by Oslin et al., it was concluded that alcohol had some adverse effect on both middle-aged and older adults. Additionally, in the article by Gladstone, Levy and Nulman, it was established that alcohol had some relative effects on the pregnant women which could also be passed on to their newborns. In another research conducted on dogs, the investigators revealed a similarity in the alcohol impact on the animals as compared to that on human beings. This effect can be directly explained on the impact alcohol has on the neurotransmitters. It follows that alcohol has some impact on the brain and its coordination and this effect can be experienced by both animals and individuals. The effects are experienced on the social and behavioral components of either human or animal systems functioning.
About the author
Vanessa Hudson is a freelance writer on https://elitewritings.com/blog/72-argumentative-essay-topics.html. She specializes in academic writing on different topics.