an identical amount of glucose, the C57 Bl/6j mice have significantly higher levels of plasma glucose than the DBA/2j strain (Goas et al. 1979). Furthermore, a functional relationship between this diabetogenic disturbance and alcohol preference was shown in C57 Bl/6j mice which were allowed to choose between water or a 10% alcohol solution (Goas et al., 1979). Zito and colleagues (1984) showed that Wistar rats with glucose intolerance displayed an immediate preference for ethanol and consumed approximately three times more ethanol than the control animals (Zito et al., 1984). Finally, Forsander and Pösö (1987) demonstrated that the AA strain (with an inherited preference for alcohol) and the ANA strain (with an aversion to alcohol) maintain their blood glucose concentration by different mechanisms. In fact the ANA rats utilise both glycogenolysis and gluconeogenesis but the AA rats only gluconeogenesis (Forsander and Pösö, 1987), an observation suggesting that carbohydrate metabolism is genetically related to alcohol drinking (Forsander and Pösö, 1988). Together these experiments suggest a role for glucoregulatory processes in alcohol intake. The present study is consistent with these animal studies, since pre-treatment glucose level was significantly and directly related to PHDD of alcohol dependent subjects at baseline and during the first
