Ethanol, the main psychopharmacologically active ingredient of alcoholic drinks, represents a paradigmatic example of a research subject intrinsically able to perpetually self-generate interdisciplinary cutting-edge investigations. This eBook was inspired by the aim of providing an up-to-date characterization of the diverse effects of ethanol, of the possible mechanisms of action on different intracellular systems as well as of the hypothesized actions of ethanol and/or its metabolites on various neurotransmitters and neuromodulators. Indeed, the eBook provides a factual example of an excellent synthesis on the complex relationship between ethanol and its main biologically active metabolites (Chapter 1), on the behavioral and molecular consequences of early exposure to them (Chapter 2), on the recent proposals, advanced by the preclinical research, for new therapeutic approaches to distinct aspects of alcoholism (Chapter 3) and on the most recent and original preclinical evidence of the interactions between ethanol and/or its metabolites and the dopaminergic, adenosinergic and endocannabinoidergic systems (Chapter 4). Overall we believe that this eBook accomplishes its main goals of widening the perspective on this research subject and offering the readership a newer and, simultaneously, up-to-date and comprehensive scenery on ethanol’s and ethanol's active metabolites neurophysiological and behavioral effects. |