Learning outcomes
After studying this course, you should be able to:
describe the effects that ethanol in the blood has on the body – specifically the effect on drivers’ judgement at blood-alcohol concentrations near the legal limit for driving and the serious effects of blood-alcohol concentrations in excess of 200 mg/100 ml
describe the short-term effects experienced following excessive alcohol consumption. Comment on the relationship between these complex effects and ethanol metabolites or congeners, the various ‘remedies’ adopted, and that the physiological basis for these economically important short-term harmful effects remains poorly understood
discuss some of the long-term harmful effects of drinking excessive alcohol with specific reference to the three stages of alcoholic liver disease and central and peripheral nervous system damage
discuss fetal alcohol syndrome, describing the main effects on the fetus and some of the factors that can make research into this disorder more complex.