Individuals vary widely in their subjective experience of the pharmacological and neurobehavioral effects of alcohol upon its consumption. Pharmacological effects focus on the cellular and physiological effects of alcohol while subjective experiences focus on an individual’s self-reported perceptions of the effects of the substance. While some individuals may be more or less sensitive to the positively reinforcing and stimulant effects of alcohol, others report higher sensitivity to the aversive sedative effects. Recent research, primarily from alcohol administration studies, has documented the substantial variability in individuals’ subjective responses to alcohol and has shown that differences in these subjective experiences may play a significant role in the predisposition to alcohol use and misuse (e.g., Schuckit & Smith, 1996). Importantly, recent studies have shown that subjective response to alcohol represents a heritable phenotype (Heath & Martin, 1991; Viken et al., 2003).
