Alcohol consumption produces many well-known behavioral effects including anxiolysis, impaired motor coordination, impaired cognitive function, sedation, hypnosis, anticonvulsant, and pro-aggressive action. Strikingly, many of these behavioral effects of ethanol overlap with the effects of GABAA receptor agonists and can be altered by GABAA receptor modifiers. GABAA receptor agonists (benzodiazepines, muscimol) increase ethanol responses whereas inverse agonists and antagonists (Ro15-4513, picrotoxin, bicuculline) decrease ethanol responses (see Grobin et al. 1998 for review).
