Intravenous (IV) administration using a clamping procedure to maintain steady state blood alcohol levels is a potentially advantageous approach to investigating relationships between subjective response and impulsivity. While oral and fixed IV administration are valuable approaches, both have limitations including variable absorption, side effects (e.g., nausea) and variable blood alcohol levels (BALs) (O'Connor et al. 1998; Ramchandani et al. 1999). Ethanol administration via IV infusion titrated to a breathalyzer reading and clamped at a steady state (Gilman et al. 2012; Ramchandani et al. 1999; Roh et al. 2011) enables direct comparisons of the effects of a specific dose of ethanol between groups without these confounds. This clamping procedure has been used safely in healthy participants with targeted BALs from 50-150 mg/dl (Morzorati et al. 2002; Ramchandani et al. 1999; Subramanian et al. 2002).
