In summary, there are multiple lines of evidence from human and animal studies connecting impulsivity and alcohol use disorders. Across species, there is data that alcohol use increases impulsivity acutely. There is suggestion from human studies that chronic alcohol use may lead to long-term decreases in self-control, although this is an area of research that merits additional study in both human and animal paradigms. The converse has also been demonstrated across species: differences in impulsivity have been correlated with differences in alcohol use. Furthermore, there is suggestion across human and animal studies that the observed phenotypic correlations likely reflect, in part, a genetic correlation between impulsivity and alcohol-related phenotypes. However, what also becomes apparent across human and animal studies is that the measurement of ‘impulsivity’ varies dramatically from one study to the next. Different studies that purport to study impulsivity may be using very different measures of the construct. Is the same construct really targeted in studies with humans and animals? When we discuss ‘impulsivity’, what exactly are we talking about?
