Ethanol, the main psychopharmacologically active ingredient of alcoholic drinks, represents a paradigmatic example of a research subject intrinsically able to perpetually self-generate interdisciplinary cutting-edge investigations. This eBook was inspired by the aim of providing an up-to-date characterization of the diverse effects of ethanol, of the possible mechanisms of action on different intracellular systems as well as of the hypothesized actions of ethanol and/or its metabolites on various neurotransmitters and neuromodulators. Indeed, the eBook provides a factual example of an excellent synthesis on the complex relationship between ethanol and its main biologically active metabolites (
- Chapter 1), on the behavioral and molecular consequences of early exposure to them (
- Chapter 2), on the recent proposals, advanced by the preclinical research, for new therapeutic approaches to distinct aspects of alcoholism (
- Chapter 3) and on the most recent and original preclinical evidence of the interactions between ethanol and/or its metabolites and the dopaminergic, adenosinergic and endocannabinoidergic systems (
- Chapter 4). Overall we believe that this eBook accomplishes its main goals of widening the perspective on this research subject and offering the readership a newer and, simultaneously, up-to-date and comprehensive scenery on ethanol's and ethanol's active metabolites neurophysiological and behavioral effects.