ABSTRACT
The study of the relationship, if any, between the biological actions of alcohol and aggressive behaviour induced by its acute or chronic consumption or during subsequent withdrawal is also subject to the influences on these actions of the many factors and variables discussed above. It has also been recognised for some 77 years that chronic alcohol consumption accelerates ethanol metabolism. Alcohol also influences biogenic amine metabolism in other ways (which will be discussed in detail later on) which may have a more direct relationship with aggressive behaviour. It is, nevertheless, possible to conclude that decreases in GABA concentration previously associated with aggressive behaviour accompany the increase in locomotor activity seen after acute administration of a small dose of ethanol, and also the seizures observed during the alcohol-withdrawal syndrome. Catecholamines have been much more extensively studied in relation to ethanol and behaviour than GABA and AcCh.
