Here we have studied the changes that take place in the brains of alcoholics. We examined whether chronic alcohol consumption in humans changes the balance between excitation and inhibition in the post-mortem caudate and putamen by analyzing the mRNA expression levels of the glutamate- and GABA-activated receptor subunits. The results show significant changes in the expression of specific excitatory ionotropic glutamate receptor genes and specific inhibitory GABA-A receptor genes in the caudate but not the putamen of the striatum, indicating that alcoholism-related alterations in the expression of the main excitatory and inhibitory receptor subunits are not similar in adjacent brain regions.
