Pharmacokinetic modeling for ethanol began in the 1930s with Widmark (156) and continues today to either describe, predict, or control alcohol exposures resulting from an orally or intravenously administered dosage. These attempts have taken two forms; phenomenological and physiological, both attempting to describe the absorption, distribution, and elimination of alcohol from the body (157). Phenomenological models describe the ethanol concentration time course with generic compartments, the number defined by fit to experimental data (157). Physiologically based pharmacokinetic models attempt to describe the same ethanol time course with compartments based on functional anatomy and physiology to the extent possible (157). The desire to accurately describe the alcohol or alcohol-related concentration time course in various phases of the absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion processes or in specific phases is reflected in the number of compartments (158). These efforts are further complicated by attempts to describe the pharmacokinetics of the population vs an individual (158). Consequently, numerous models have been developed, each with its own strengths, limitations, and specific applications, and a detailed discussion of each model is beyond the scope of this review.
