1
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'I'm an addiction specialist and, for me,

2
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'that means hard drugs

3
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'- heroin, cocaine.'

4
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But there's one drug that is just everywhere.

5
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Alcohol.

6
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And it's the one drug that I just don't get.

7
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'Alcohol grips most of us, often before we're even adult,

8
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'and stays right the way through our lives to the end.'

9
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No other drug does that.

10
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So I want to find out why alcohol has such strong effects.

11
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One, because it's my job and two,

12
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because my father was an alcoholic.

13
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'In this film, I'm going to explore

14
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'what science is saying about alcohol,

15
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'by far the most widely-used drug.'

16
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'What does alcohol do to our brains and bodies?'

17
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Do you like the effects you're feeling now?

18
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Four.Would you like more of what you've received?Five.

19
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'What are the dangers of our children drinking too young?

20
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Alcohol kills brain cells.

21
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They can bring their blood alcohol levels up so high that they get close to overdose levels.

22
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'How much of our relationship with alcohol is written in our genes?'

23
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It's not like having your blood pressure taken.

24
00:01:25,240 --> 00:01:31,320
'And could this new designer drug really be a safe swap for alcohol?'

25
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I'd have to say that I'd vote for

26
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the three pills from Dr Nutt.

27
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'But for me, the most important question is this...'

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Take any dozen people.

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Each of them will have their own relationship with alcohol.

30
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West Ham getting promoted.

31
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Going to gigs.Pubs and clubs.St Patrick's Day.Restaurants.

32
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'It will surround them throughout their lives.

33
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Family Christmas meals.Divorce.

34
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Reminiscing at funerals. Birthday parties, weddings.

35
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Friday night down the pub.

36
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Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

37
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'Some of them will find it really hard to stop.'

38
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I don't think alcohol is a drug. It's not a drug. I wouldn't say it's a drug.

39
00:02:25,920 --> 00:02:29,800
'Inject 29mls of pure alcohol and you die.'

40
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I don't see it as a drug.

41
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No. That's not how I'd class it.

42
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'So what about me?'

43
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I think a few words are in order about me and alcohol.

44
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And I'm a drinker.

45
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I like alcohol.

46
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And in spite of my father's serious drinking problems,

47
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I like to drink, myself.

48
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And, as an addiction expert, it occurs to me that

49
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I don't really know that much about this drug.

50
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And maybe I haven't wanted to find out.

51
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'The fact is, I've been drinking ever since I was a teenager.

52
00:03:13,280 --> 00:03:16,520
'And yet, what I've never dared to ask myself

53
00:03:16,560 --> 00:03:20,800
'is what exactly does it do to make me feel the way I do when I drink?

54
00:03:20,840 --> 00:03:24,240
'I've come to meet a colleague of mine, Professor Nutt,

55
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'to really pin down the pharmacology of this drug, alcohol.'

56
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What is it about alcohol that we like, as humans?

57
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Well, alcohol is a remarkable drug,

58
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cos it's so many different things.

59
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Many people use different aspects of alcohol to serve their own purposes.

60
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Here's alcohol.You've got some here!

61
00:03:45,880 --> 00:03:49,320
So this is lab-grade ethanol? That's right.

62
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If you have a couple of large-ish glasses of wine,

63
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then you'd be drinking about that much.

64
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It works on many different systems in the brain.

65
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The first effect most of us have with alcohol is we get calm.

66
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So, taking a couple of shots of alcohol

67
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is like taking a minor tranquilliser, like Diazepam.

68
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The best example is when people are flying.

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The first thing they do when the seatbelt sign comes off

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is serve the drinks, because about 30% of people are phobic of flying.

71
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It relaxes me. I feel so much more relaxed.

72
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It makes me mellow.Relaxed.

73
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It seems obvious to me that there's also an immediate high,

74
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a buzz, a euphoric effect.

75
00:04:29,640 --> 00:04:32,200
Again, depending on the circumstances,

76
00:04:32,240 --> 00:04:34,960
a lot of people do get quite energised with alcohol.

77
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There are two different neurotransmitters involved in that.

78
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One is dopamine, which is actually what drugs like cocaine target.

79
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It used to make me buzz.

80
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I feel daring, so it's a good feeling.

81
00:04:47,800 --> 00:04:52,120
Another contribution to the pleasurable effects of alcohol is serotonin.

82
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A drug which increases serotonin, Prozac, is an antidepressant.

83
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Very extrovert.

84
00:04:58,240 --> 00:05:00,840
I was the centre of the party, like.

85
00:05:00,880 --> 00:05:02,240
This is heroin.

86
00:05:02,280 --> 00:05:07,040
Heroin's extremely addictive. You're not telling me alcohol's like heroin.

87
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No, but at some point, you begin to turn on the same brain systems as heroin.

88
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It makes you feel very excited, like anything's possible.

89
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You think you can take on the world, I think that's what it is.

90
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It's confidence.

91
00:05:20,440 --> 00:05:24,440
One more stage. And that's the barbiturates. Now, these are anaesthetics.

92
00:05:24,480 --> 00:05:28,480
High-dose barbiturates, anaesthetics, put people to sleep.

93
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If you take too much of them, you stop breathing and die. That's why people die of alcohol.

94
00:05:34,480 --> 00:05:37,560
I couldn't remember nothing...

95
00:05:37,600 --> 00:05:41,280
er...for the next four or five days.

96
00:05:41,320 --> 00:05:46,240
If you've got bruises and you don't know how you've got them, you've had a good night.

97
00:05:46,280 --> 00:05:52,480
It seems obvious, doesn't it, across the land, at the weekend, people are getting out of control on alcohol.

98
00:05:52,520 --> 00:05:54,120
What's going on?

99
00:05:54,160 --> 00:05:57,480
How you get off your trolley on alcohol? Everything's going on.

100
00:05:57,520 --> 00:06:01,320
The anxiolytic effect is taking away your fear.

101
00:06:01,360 --> 00:06:05,720
The stimulant effect is making you aggressive and irritable.

102
00:06:05,760 --> 00:06:09,240
The serotonin effect is making you feel good,

103
00:06:09,280 --> 00:06:13,600
even though you're actually perhaps getting beaten up.Yeah.

104
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And then the anaesthetic effect is taking away that sense of self-awareness

105
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which most of us use to prevent ourselves doing silly things.

106
00:06:22,760 --> 00:06:28,840
There is something about alcohol that makes other people more attractive to you and you more attractive them.

107
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It's a combination of the different neurotransmitters.

108
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I tend to declare my love for people.

109
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They say it's associated with sexual feelings, so I think it's true.

110
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I just love him!

111
00:06:42,200 --> 00:06:45,040
You can get off with people and say, "Sorry, I was drunk!"

112
00:06:45,080 --> 00:06:48,760
My top comes off. I have been promiscuous, thanks to alcohol.

113
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I get off with anyone.

114
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I lose my inhibitions.

115
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I wouldn't look at them twice, had I been sober.

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Do you think, at the end of the day, there's just nothing else like it?

117
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Yes. If you were to take all those... That would be me running around, screaming.

118
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It's a unique drug. There's no question.

119
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'To really understand this unique drug,

120
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'and why it's so ingrained in all our lives,

121
00:07:17,840 --> 00:07:20,680
'first, we have to understand where it comes from.'

122
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When I think of alcohol, the images that spring to mind

123
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are bars, the clatter of glasses, the pouring of liquids.

124
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And alcohol as just a sort of product that we have created.

125
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But that's not true, is it?

126
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'In fact, you have to go back 80 million years

127
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'to its first and most simple use, a poison.'

128
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This is a war between different types of bugs, of micro-organisms.

129
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'I've come to a cherry orchard in Kent to meet Dr Quain,

130
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'an expert in microbiology.'

131
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We're talking about yeast, bacteria, fungi.

132
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What they want is to survive and beat off competitors.

133
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Rotting fruit contains sugars - glucose, fructose -

134
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things that bugs want. But yeast has been pretty damn clever.

135
00:08:17,960 --> 00:08:21,600
What it said was, "I'm gonna take some of that sugar

136
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"and I'm gonna make something which is a by-product of eating sugar."

137
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And that by-product is alcohol.

138
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'But the really clever part is that alcohol is poisonous to other bugs.'

139
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So bad for those other bugs, good for yeast and good for us.

140
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That's right.

141
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Without this particular species of yeast,

142
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it would be a teetotal world.

143
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'So at the heart of this war was one tiny organism that evolved a unique method to protect itself.'

144
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Some juice coming out there, which will help.

145
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Oh, gosh, well, there are a few things on here, but the majority -

146
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and there are loads of them - are little ovals.

147
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Those are yeast cells. It's almost a pure culture, as we would say.

148
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There's little or nothing else there.

149
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What I'm looking at, I suppose, is yeast floating in alcohol?

150
00:09:14,120 --> 00:09:15,280
Yeah.

151
00:09:15,320 --> 00:09:19,040
Um... And if you think about it, going back in time,

152
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this might've been how primitive man first encountered alcohol,

153
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by eating some rotten fruit.

154
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Do you want to try one?Yeah, OK, I will. Not the one you just used.

155
00:09:30,120 --> 00:09:32,040
This is another ripe one.

156
00:09:32,080 --> 00:09:33,720
Give it a go.

157
00:09:33,760 --> 00:09:36,840
Oh, you're not kidding. That's quite strong.

158
00:09:36,880 --> 00:09:41,040
Actually, the cherry taste has diminished,

159
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but there is a hint of alcohol.

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'This quirk of evolution - the ability to turn sugar into alcohol -

161
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'take us way back.

162
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'But it's what we do today, when we harvest billions of yeast cells

163
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'to make their poison for us,

164
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'using a relatively simple piece of chemistry,

165
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'that we have obsessively reproduced across the planet.

166
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'Once we'd tasted alcohol, it seems there was no going back.'

167
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Like Popeye and spinach.

168
00:10:16,400 --> 00:10:20,040
I would see it as part of a ritual, yes. Part of my routine.

169
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I'm in a group, everybody's drinking, "Oh, come and join in!"

170
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If I met a student who didn't drink, I'd be like, "Really?!"

171
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There's a lot of business that gets done over a glass of wine.

172
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'What strikes me about how I and other people drink

173
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'is how much that reveals about us.'

174
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It seems to me we can chart our lives in relation to alcohol.

175
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And alcohol, in a sense, has a sort of life cycle.

176
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And maybe the reasons that we can think of

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for drinking changed as we change.

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But if you just picked somebody randomly off the street,

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and said to them, "OK, tell me your drinking...style,"

180
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you would learn a lot about their life.

181
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'The interesting thing about this relationship

182
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'is that it's not universal.

183
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'But I know from my work with other drugs that very often,

184
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'patterns emerge that define the type of user you are.

185
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'So can each of us be defined as a particular type of drinker?

186
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'Do we fit into different tribes?

187
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'The most compelling evidence has come not from humans

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'but from some of our nearest relatives.

189
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'In 2004, on the island of St Kitts,

190
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'people noticed monkeys coming in from the surrounding jungle and stealing cocktails.

191
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'Monkeys would've been used to consuming low levels of alcohol

192
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'through eating the local ripe sugar cane.

193
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'But now they are onto the distilled stuff.

194
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'And some of them were getting drunk.'

195
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'In the Washington Animal Research Centre,

196
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'scientists like Dr Barr were intrigued.

197
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'She wanted to find out if there are behavioural traits

198
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'that both monkeys and humans share once they have drunk alcohol.'

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So, they must really want it, because it's got to be to some extent risky for them to be doing this.

200
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You really have to hold onto your drink!You really do have to hold onto your drink.

201
00:12:27,520 --> 00:12:31,120
Look at that! That's frenzied drinking, isn't it?

202
00:12:31,160 --> 00:12:33,320
There can be some competition.

203
00:12:33,360 --> 00:12:35,480
HE LAUGHS

204
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Back off from the Mai Tai!

205
00:12:38,240 --> 00:12:40,000
It's a limited resource, I guess.

206
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'What the scientists did was to recreate the drinking opportunities offered to monkeys on the island,

207
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'but in a controlled environment.

208
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'They monitored the monkeys by a collar, so they knew exactly how much was being drunk

209
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'and what different effects it was having.'

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You can see this animal climbing up into this chamber.

211
00:12:59,240 --> 00:13:03,560
But they're all free to choose whether to have alcohol or not.

212
00:13:03,600 --> 00:13:04,600
Exactly.

213
00:13:04,640 --> 00:13:10,080
This male here is repeatedly coming up and wants to drink this alcohol.

214
00:13:10,120 --> 00:13:14,440
Do you see different types of behaviour, once they've had alcohol or not?

215
00:13:14,480 --> 00:13:17,120
Some animals become relaxed,

216
00:13:17,160 --> 00:13:20,560
or appear to become sedate,

217
00:13:20,600 --> 00:13:21,640
even clumsy.

218
00:13:21,680 --> 00:13:26,640
Other guys are running around like crazy, playing, doing dangerous things.

219
00:13:26,680 --> 00:13:32,200
They become disinhibited. They do things you don't typically observe in these monkeys,

220
00:13:32,240 --> 00:13:34,960
because they've had this dose of alcohol.

221
00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:38,240
The guy who looks like he's swinging on the lampshade up there,

222
00:13:38,280 --> 00:13:40,320
we know which one you've been at, fella!

223
00:13:40,360 --> 00:13:43,360
'I recognise these different behaviours.

224
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'They obviously apply to us humans too.

225
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'But the interesting thing is how this population divides very clearly into different tribes -

226
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'those that like it, dislike it, or actively avoid it.'

227
00:13:55,040 --> 00:13:59,960
It's very similar to what you see in human populations.

228
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'It's probably around 25% that don't like it,

229
00:14:03,400 --> 00:14:06,080
50% that like it some of the time and 25% who,

230
00:14:06,120 --> 00:14:09,440
if given the chance, they will drink every day that they can.

231
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You would just see a very different reaction.

232
00:14:12,320 --> 00:14:15,720
I think... Well, we see it in humans too.

233
00:14:15,760 --> 00:14:18,320
Not everyone responds to alcohol the same way.

234
00:14:18,360 --> 00:14:23,440
I know that there are friends of mine with whom I don't particularly like to drink alcohol!

235
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And I think that really, the fundamental systems

236
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that are altered when you drink alcohol

237
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are the same in a monkey and in human.

238
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'There is something really striking about this drug, alcohol.

239
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'Whether monkey or human, it seems to divide us into three distinct tribes.'

240
00:14:49,160 --> 00:14:53,560
There's one group that really doesn't like alcohol at all.

241
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There's another that appears to like it and will drink reasonably freely.

242
00:14:59,080 --> 00:15:04,480
But yet a third, when given the opportunity would drink and drink and drink.

243
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It leaves me with the slightly uncomfortable question

244
00:15:08,520 --> 00:15:13,840
as to which of those latter groups I fall into.

245
00:15:13,880 --> 00:15:17,760
I don't like the taste of alcohol. Horrid. It was absolutely horrible.

246
00:15:17,800 --> 00:15:21,320
I don't drink that much. Two glasses of wine, that's fine.

247
00:15:21,360 --> 00:15:24,080
I will drink, through the night, a bottle of wine.

248
00:15:24,120 --> 00:15:27,320
The weekly unit amounts, you know, probably do in one night.

249
00:15:27,360 --> 00:15:32,960
And the frightening thing is this relationship is beginning earlier and earlier.

250
00:15:33,000 --> 00:15:38,920
About 20 years ago, the average age for a first drink was 16. Today, it's 13.

251
00:15:40,480 --> 00:15:46,240
My very first drink was possibly at the age of six.

252
00:15:46,280 --> 00:15:48,760
Sneaked one from my mum.

253
00:15:48,800 --> 00:15:50,320
I was about 12, probably.

254
00:15:50,360 --> 00:15:52,160
I drunk it in hiding.

255
00:15:54,040 --> 00:15:56,400
But despite its widespread use by children,

256
00:15:56,440 --> 00:16:00,520
it's very difficult to research its effects on the teenage brain.

257
00:16:00,560 --> 00:16:05,200
Ethically no-one can justify giving alcohol to a child.

258
00:16:05,240 --> 00:16:10,480
Only once back in 1984 did scientists conduct a study to directly look at this.

259
00:16:10,520 --> 00:16:16,120
A group of children between 10-15 were brought together for an experiment.

260
00:16:16,160 --> 00:16:20,200
Each of them had an intravenous needle inserted in theirarms

261
00:16:20,240 --> 00:16:23,480
so their blood levels could be monitored.

262
00:16:25,520 --> 00:16:29,040
Then a dose of ethanol, pure alcohol,

263
00:16:29,080 --> 00:16:31,760
was added to a soft drink and given to them.

264
00:16:34,240 --> 00:16:37,320
Then they had to stand on a vibrating platform,

265
00:16:37,360 --> 00:16:40,080
so their steadiness and balance could be was tested.

266
00:16:40,120 --> 00:16:46,680
A computer measured how many times the childmoved and by how much.

267
00:16:49,440 --> 00:16:54,440
Dr Linda Spears was struck by the results of this simple test.

268
00:16:54,480 --> 00:16:57,080
They gave an intoxicating dose of alcohol,

269
00:16:57,120 --> 00:17:00,880
or what they thought would be an intoxicating dose of alcohol,

270
00:17:00,920 --> 00:17:03,400
to some 10-12-year-old boys.

271
00:17:03,440 --> 00:17:08,040
And they were going to examine them and see how they felt

272
00:17:08,080 --> 00:17:11,000
and see how drunk they felt, look at them behaviourally

273
00:17:11,040 --> 00:17:12,680
and see if they were staggering.

274
00:17:12,720 --> 00:17:16,000
If they could close their eyes and stand on one foot and all that.

275
00:17:16,040 --> 00:17:20,440
The bottom line is that the boys acted like they weren't given any alcohol at all.

276
00:17:20,480 --> 00:17:22,680
They were not impaired at all.

277
00:17:22,720 --> 00:17:27,280
Even though adults at that dose would've been quite impaired,

278
00:17:27,320 --> 00:17:32,160
even adults that have drunk alcohol before and would have some tolerance.

279
00:17:32,200 --> 00:17:35,840
So that made them think that there might be something going on

280
00:17:35,880 --> 00:17:38,960
in adolescence that may make them fairly insensitive

281
00:17:39,000 --> 00:17:42,600
to at least those kinds of intoxicating effects of alcohol.

282
00:17:42,640 --> 00:17:47,400
You've translated that design into your laboratory?Absolutely.

283
00:17:47,440 --> 00:17:52,160
It would be interesting to do that work in children but you can't.

284
00:17:52,200 --> 00:17:54,840
Ethically, you can't be giving alcohol to kids,

285
00:17:54,880 --> 00:17:58,640
so one way we've been trying to do that is looking at an animal model -

286
00:17:58,680 --> 00:18:02,600
a very simple animal model of adolescence and we used rats.

287
00:18:03,680 --> 00:18:06,520
Linda re-ran the experiment for me.

288
00:18:06,560 --> 00:18:10,720
The idea was to compare teenage with adult rats after they'd had a dose of alcohol

289
00:18:10,760 --> 00:18:13,960
and see which one was better at keeping their balance.

290
00:18:17,680 --> 00:18:19,960
So the rats were put upside down on a slope -

291
00:18:20,000 --> 00:18:24,920
a spot they would immediately try to get out of, but would they be able to?

292
00:18:27,760 --> 00:18:29,520
The first on was a teenage rat.

293
00:18:37,280 --> 00:18:38,960
And he made it.

294
00:18:44,320 --> 00:18:47,440
The second teenager seemed to find it even easier.

295
00:18:49,320 --> 00:18:53,880
And the third one - I wouldn't have known he'd touched a drop.

296
00:18:56,160 --> 00:18:58,560
Then came the adults...

297
00:19:03,840 --> 00:19:06,160
And this is when it all started to fall apart.

298
00:19:10,320 --> 00:19:12,920
They'd had exactly the same dose as the teenagers,

299
00:19:12,960 --> 00:19:15,040
but clearly couldn't hold it.

300
00:19:16,760 --> 00:19:18,960
Maybe the third would be different?

301
00:19:20,800 --> 00:19:22,520
No.

302
00:19:22,560 --> 00:19:25,520
You'd imagine that there would either be no difference

303
00:19:25,560 --> 00:19:27,480
or in fact it would go the other way.

304
00:19:27,520 --> 00:19:31,120
That a young, if you like, a young brain would be more affected.

305
00:19:31,160 --> 00:19:35,520
For these kinds of tasks, we think that, the adolescents are less sensitive

306
00:19:35,560 --> 00:19:39,320
because of the brain regions that are responding to those tasks

307
00:19:39,360 --> 00:19:44,440
are different in terms of their developmental stage than adults.

308
00:19:44,480 --> 00:19:49,080
So to drink more, to be able to cope with more booze on board,

309
00:19:49,120 --> 00:19:52,400
but that's not to say there's no risk of damage.

310
00:19:52,440 --> 00:19:57,320
That's right. The adolescent brain is a composite of areas

311
00:19:57,360 --> 00:20:01,440
that are more sensitive to alcohol and less sensitive to alcohol than adults.

312
00:20:01,480 --> 00:20:06,880
In amongst the things that, the proportions of the brain that seem to be very sensitive to alcohol

313
00:20:06,920 --> 00:20:09,880
are regions that are important for learning and memory.

314
00:20:09,920 --> 00:20:13,920
Adolescents are very sensitive to alcohol-induced memory impairments.

315
00:20:13,960 --> 00:20:16,160
I couldn't think of a worse combination -

316
00:20:16,200 --> 00:20:19,920
a teenager's memory and learning potential vulnerable to alcohol

317
00:20:19,960 --> 00:20:23,320
but the teenager not feeling the effects.

318
00:20:24,400 --> 00:20:28,360
It's almost like you've got to be careful when you see a young person drunk.

319
00:20:28,400 --> 00:20:32,360
They've probably taken more than you imagined.Absolutely.

320
00:20:32,400 --> 00:20:36,120
If you ask parents, there's a big disconnect

321
00:20:36,160 --> 00:20:39,000
because if you ask parents are their kids drinking,

322
00:20:39,040 --> 00:20:45,960
they report quite a lower number of kids drinking than the kids that are actually drinking.

323
00:20:46,000 --> 00:20:48,960
And part of that is because these kids are coming home

324
00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:52,320
and they're not acting, they're not looking intoxicated.

325
00:20:52,360 --> 00:20:58,320
But if a young person comes home after a night out and they are substantially affected,

326
00:20:58,360 --> 00:21:00,760
they've drunk a hell of a lot of alcohol.

327
00:21:00,800 --> 00:21:03,120
That's right. They have drunk a lot.

328
00:21:03,160 --> 00:21:07,840
And the problem is that being less sensitive to these intoxicating effects,

329
00:21:07,880 --> 00:21:10,760
they can bring their blood alcohol levels up so high,

330
00:21:10,800 --> 00:21:13,120
that they get close to overdose levels.

331
00:21:13,160 --> 00:21:16,600
I've don't think I've ever been to a club sober.

332
00:21:16,640 --> 00:21:18,800
You don't go to a party without alcohol.

333
00:21:18,840 --> 00:21:20,960
Everyone was just downing it.

334
00:21:21,000 --> 00:21:23,120
When you're younger and you're...

335
00:21:23,160 --> 00:21:26,320
Let's say five and you play with dolls and you pretend,

336
00:21:26,360 --> 00:21:30,560
that you're older. And now when you come to 14 you drink alcohol.

337
00:21:30,600 --> 00:21:36,040
For me the relationship with this drug, alcohol, began 30 years ago.

338
00:21:36,080 --> 00:21:42,360
I know that after 30 years of heroin or cocaine use, you'd be lucky to be alive.

339
00:21:42,400 --> 00:21:44,800
But what about alcohol?

340
00:21:44,840 --> 00:21:47,520
What has 30 years of this done to my body?

341
00:21:49,600 --> 00:21:55,840
I've stood here for a minute thinking about this liver test that I'm going to have.

342
00:21:57,120 --> 00:22:01,800
And...it occurs to me that, on the one hand,

343
00:22:01,840 --> 00:22:07,000
it's likely to be absolutely fine and on the other hand,

344
00:22:07,040 --> 00:22:09,720
"What if it's not OK?"

345
00:22:09,760 --> 00:22:12,200
I'm not sure if I'm prepared for that.

346
00:22:12,240 --> 00:22:17,960
And I know I'm not prepared for a doctor to tell me that I have to stop drinking.

347
00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:20,440
That's quite a shocking thought.

348
00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:26,080
When did you first have an alcoholic drink?

349
00:22:26,120 --> 00:22:28,320
A proper drink?Yes.

350
00:22:28,360 --> 00:22:30,600
I would say I was 15.

351
00:22:30,640 --> 00:22:34,080
And can you tell me what the circumstances of that were?

352
00:22:34,120 --> 00:22:36,400
Yeah, it was...

353
00:22:37,480 --> 00:22:41,200
It was kids messing around and an older kid...

354
00:22:41,240 --> 00:22:44,800
We were on our bikes summer afternoon in the country

355
00:22:44,840 --> 00:22:49,480
and an older kid managed to buy some alcohol from a pub

356
00:22:49,520 --> 00:22:54,040
and brought it out and I had a half of bitter or something.Right.

357
00:22:54,080 --> 00:22:58,080
What was the attitude to alcohol in your family?

358
00:22:59,680 --> 00:23:05,160
Hard to... Hard to look back andbe very clear about.

359
00:23:05,200 --> 00:23:12,720
As I know now, my dad was developing quite a significant drinking problem himself.

360
00:23:12,760 --> 00:23:17,120
What point do you think you then started to drink regularly?

361
00:23:18,160 --> 00:23:23,320
Um, I would say from about 16, 17.

362
00:23:23,360 --> 00:23:28,080
I would say it took off from the runway a bit during the university years.

363
00:23:28,120 --> 00:23:33,640
Rolling forwards, I think my drinking probably increased as a stress-buster.

364
00:23:33,680 --> 00:23:38,760
I slipped into a habit of probably having two or three pints after work on an empty stomach,

365
00:23:38,800 --> 00:23:41,400
probably a few more though on a Friday night.

366
00:23:41,440 --> 00:23:46,960
So, you'd have been consuming, on average, 30 units and above a week?

367
00:23:48,320 --> 00:23:50,520
Just look at your veins around your neck.

368
00:23:50,560 --> 00:23:54,040
We're looking for any lymph nodes. It's a routine examination.

369
00:23:54,080 --> 00:23:58,480
So what had all these years of drinking done to me?

370
00:23:58,520 --> 00:24:01,400
Take a really deep breath in for me?

371
00:24:01,440 --> 00:24:05,520
The doctor was feeling for any sign that my organs had changed size.

372
00:24:05,560 --> 00:24:10,400
Of your body is fighting with alcohol, your liver and spleen can swell.

373
00:24:10,440 --> 00:24:12,800
And out...

374
00:24:12,840 --> 00:24:16,240
I'm just feeling to see if the liver's actually enlarged.

375
00:24:16,280 --> 00:24:18,160
Deep breath in again. And out.

376
00:24:18,200 --> 00:24:19,600
And in again?

377
00:24:19,640 --> 00:24:21,600
OK.

378
00:24:21,640 --> 00:24:24,760
I can just feel your liver tip when you breath in deeply,

379
00:24:24,800 --> 00:24:28,160
but you're a slim individual and I would see that as being normal.

380
00:24:28,200 --> 00:24:31,400
A lot of the signs that we would look for

381
00:24:31,440 --> 00:24:36,840
are signs that you see in patients with cirrhosis and scarring, so...

382
00:24:36,880 --> 00:24:39,240
Can you be reassuring in that department?

383
00:24:39,280 --> 00:24:41,880
So far, it's looking all right.

384
00:24:42,120 --> 00:24:46,840
You're going to feel a little probe on the side of your abdomen.

385
00:24:46,880 --> 00:24:52,360
From the outside things looked OK but what about from the inside?

386
00:24:52,400 --> 00:24:56,520
A scan was looking at the density of my liver by passing vibrations through it.

387
00:24:56,560 --> 00:25:01,240
The harder the liver had become by alcohol, the less vibrations would pass through.

388
00:25:01,280 --> 00:25:03,560
The important figure is this one,

389
00:25:03,600 --> 00:25:07,840
the stiffness value and that's well within the normal range,

390
00:25:07,880 --> 00:25:11,320
so I would say that's a normal liver stiffness.

391
00:25:11,360 --> 00:25:13,800
That's reassuring to you and me. Immensely.

392
00:25:13,840 --> 00:25:15,960
But there was a catch.

393
00:25:16,000 --> 00:25:21,120
Apparently, unless I had advanced liver disease, no test would pick this up

394
00:25:21,160 --> 00:25:23,880
and by the time you feel the symptoms of liver damage

395
00:25:23,920 --> 00:25:27,000
you have a one-in-three chance of immediate death!

396
00:25:27,040 --> 00:25:33,000
Without opening me up, the best predictor of my liver was something I didn't want to think about.

397
00:25:33,040 --> 00:25:37,320
We come down to history being the most important investigation

398
00:25:37,360 --> 00:25:44,720
of a patient's alcohol, whether there's alcohol playing a role in damaging the liver.

399
00:25:44,760 --> 00:25:49,560
It's quite interesting how your drinking habits have changed over your lifetime.

400
00:25:49,600 --> 00:25:57,400
However, you are drinking excessively and well outside the recommended limits for a male.

401
00:25:57,440 --> 00:26:04,360
And the worry for me is the way you're packing it in over that three-day period of the weekend.

402
00:26:04,400 --> 00:26:08,160
So it would be my advice...

403
00:26:08,200 --> 00:26:12,960
that you need to reduce what you're drinking over the weekend.

404
00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:18,360
Do you think that what I could do is drink the same amount in total over the week,

405
00:26:18,400 --> 00:26:22,680
but just put the weekend consumption across the week

406
00:26:22,720 --> 00:26:26,840
so I've just spread it out. Would that be... Would that be OK?

407
00:26:26,880 --> 00:26:34,520
It would be better for you. You're still drinking well beyond your 24 units.

408
00:26:36,920 --> 00:26:39,800
Dr Patch had allowed me 24 units.

409
00:26:39,840 --> 00:26:44,920
Most guidelines say 21 units for men - that's two bottles of wine a week.

410
00:26:44,960 --> 00:26:50,720
Or for women - 14 units - a bottle and a half.

411
00:26:50,760 --> 00:26:55,400
I was drinking about a third more units than they say I should.

412
00:26:55,440 --> 00:27:01,400
It was clear from the doctor's point of view, I drink too much.

413
00:27:01,440 --> 00:27:04,640
I don't want to argue with that,

414
00:27:04,680 --> 00:27:08,960
but I'm not sure it's going to make me want to change my drinking pattern that much.

415
00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:13,280
I think it should, but I'm not sure it's going to.

416
00:27:13,320 --> 00:27:19,120
I do drink more than two units a day when I... I suppose, it would be a binge, wouldn't it?

417
00:27:19,160 --> 00:27:21,360
I need a drink.

418
00:27:21,400 --> 00:27:24,040
Sometimes you just need a drink to have nice time.

419
00:27:24,080 --> 00:27:25,560
I remember loving it.

420
00:27:25,600 --> 00:27:28,760
I definitely drink to get drunk.

421
00:27:35,000 --> 00:27:38,160
My reaction to the tests surprises me.

422
00:27:38,200 --> 00:27:44,040
But considering my family history, maybe I shouldn't be so surprised.

423
00:27:53,840 --> 00:27:57,080
There's a pub behind me here just underneath this tunnel

424
00:27:57,120 --> 00:28:00,920
that's made me remember a lot about my past.

425
00:28:00,960 --> 00:28:07,240
It's the pub on the river that my dad used to visit most evenings after finishing work.

426
00:28:07,280 --> 00:28:10,720
And he would stand at the bar, and as I understood it,

427
00:28:10,760 --> 00:28:14,440
he would drink quite heavily, get the train home,

428
00:28:14,480 --> 00:28:18,480
go on to another pub and drink heavily there,

429
00:28:18,520 --> 00:28:21,760
then arrive eventually at the family home.

430
00:28:21,800 --> 00:28:26,400
I've got memories of him opening the door into the living room

431
00:28:26,440 --> 00:28:28,680
where we'd often be sitting watching TV,

432
00:28:28,720 --> 00:28:34,080
really worse for wear and he'd just glance round the room,

433
00:28:34,120 --> 00:28:38,720
not say a word, just shut the door and you'd hear him go upstairs to bed.

434
00:28:40,680 --> 00:28:43,880
Did my dad worry about what it was doing to him?

435
00:28:43,920 --> 00:28:46,080
Most of us don't.

436
00:28:46,120 --> 00:28:50,080
Quite a few of us are going to push our drinking to the extreme.

437
00:28:50,120 --> 00:28:52,880
I always tend to drink a little bit more than I should.

438
00:28:52,920 --> 00:28:56,640
I like to have that little bit extra.

439
00:28:57,520 --> 00:29:00,400
By the time I've drunk it, that's when I think to myself,

440
00:29:00,440 --> 00:29:03,520
"I said, we're not going to do this, and now I'm doing it."

441
00:29:04,320 --> 00:29:07,560
"Today, I'm not going to want to drink, I'm not going to drink."

442
00:29:07,600 --> 00:29:11,840
And then, by evening, you're thinking quite a lot about it.

443
00:29:11,880 --> 00:29:17,720
Despite the doctor's advice that I should cut down - I hadn't.

444
00:29:17,760 --> 00:29:22,600
But why not? It's not as if the rules are difficult to understand

445
00:29:22,640 --> 00:29:25,960
and I follow other rules OK green lights, healthy food...

446
00:29:26,000 --> 00:29:33,800
but despite understanding the threat to my body, my brain wants to carry on regardless.

447
00:29:33,840 --> 00:29:37,480
So why is this effect on me so powerful?

448
00:29:40,280 --> 00:29:42,680
At the addiction centre in Washington,

449
00:29:42,720 --> 00:29:47,720
they've devised a way of looking at the brain to answer precisely this question -

450
00:29:47,760 --> 00:29:49,800
what happens when alcohol hits it?

451
00:29:49,840 --> 00:29:51,960
This is cutting-edge science

452
00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:54,560
and I'm going to be on the end of it.

453
00:29:55,640 --> 00:30:00,520
I guess, on the one hand, you'd think it would be quite easy to study the effects of alcohol,

454
00:30:00,560 --> 00:30:03,240
from the human, drinker's point of view.

455
00:30:03,280 --> 00:30:06,360
You just get a subject to take a glass of alcohol

456
00:30:06,400 --> 00:30:09,080
and you could, I suppose, find out what's going on.

457
00:30:09,120 --> 00:30:11,360
But it isn't that straightforward, is it?

458
00:30:11,400 --> 00:30:14,720
No, it's not, and as you say, it's critical to understand

459
00:30:14,760 --> 00:30:16,840
what really happens in the brain

460
00:30:16,880 --> 00:30:18,840
as alcohol hits it.

461
00:30:18,880 --> 00:30:21,280
And yet, the nature of the drug

462
00:30:21,320 --> 00:30:23,800
is such that it's been very difficult.

463
00:30:23,840 --> 00:30:27,240
For any given amount consumed the normal way,

464
00:30:27,280 --> 00:30:30,720
the amounts in the blood will vary about three- to four-fold.

465
00:30:30,760 --> 00:30:34,360
So you can imagine if we would like to do functional brain imaging,

466
00:30:34,400 --> 00:30:37,280
and visualise what brain circuits are activated,

467
00:30:37,320 --> 00:30:39,080
it really is almost impossible.

468
00:30:39,120 --> 00:30:42,600
'What the team did was to come up with a new technique.

469
00:30:42,640 --> 00:30:46,200
'They would administer the alcohol intravenously

470
00:30:46,240 --> 00:30:52,800
'so that my brain would receive a precise amount regardless of my metabolism or body size.'

471
00:30:52,840 --> 00:30:58,160
If you drink it, the amount in the blood for any given amount that is consumed,

472
00:30:58,200 --> 00:30:59,880
is extremely variable.

473
00:30:59,920 --> 00:31:05,040
Depending on people's body weight, gender, many other things.

474
00:31:05,080 --> 00:31:09,440
Here we can take all that variability out, we can size you up,

475
00:31:09,480 --> 00:31:13,720
we can basically take the model to predict exactly how much we need to give you

476
00:31:13,760 --> 00:31:17,840
in the drip to achieve exactly what is needed for the experiment.

477
00:31:20,280 --> 00:31:22,880
'The experiment the team has specialised in

478
00:31:22,920 --> 00:31:26,160
'is seeing what happens to the brain's reward circuitry

479
00:31:26,200 --> 00:31:28,080
'when it's hit with alcohol.'

480
00:31:28,120 --> 00:31:29,440
OK. You can put them down.

481
00:31:29,480 --> 00:31:33,520
'As I'd be getting the alcohol straight into my blood,

482
00:31:33,560 --> 00:31:35,480
'in case I had an adverse reaction,

483
00:31:35,520 --> 00:31:38,320
'I'd first be infused outside the scanner.'

484
00:31:38,360 --> 00:31:44,960
5, 4, 3, 2, 1, start.

485
00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:49,440
'And then it was needle in and pump switched on,

486
00:31:49,480 --> 00:31:53,080
'with me giving a running account of how it was making me feel.'

487
00:31:53,120 --> 00:31:56,840
It does feel quite cold.It does feel cold, it's kept at room temperature

488
00:31:56,880 --> 00:31:59,480
and your body is, of course, much hotter than that.

489
00:31:59,520 --> 00:32:02,560
'But it was going to be a very weird experience.

490
00:32:02,600 --> 00:32:06,720
'I was going to be given alcohol stripped away from normal social context.

491
00:32:06,760 --> 00:32:09,160
'So would I get the feelgood effect?

492
00:32:09,200 --> 00:32:11,880
'Alcohol as a drug was also on trial.'

493
00:32:11,920 --> 00:32:15,120
How many drinks does it feel like you've had at this point?

494
00:32:15,160 --> 00:32:17,120
It's so hard to tell.

495
00:32:17,160 --> 00:32:20,640
It's so divorced from how you would normally...

496
00:32:20,680 --> 00:32:25,400
The normal way I would drink alcohol is with a starter and a glass of red.

497
00:32:25,440 --> 00:32:27,400
That's how I drink.

498
00:32:28,840 --> 00:32:30,360
So this feels very different.

499
00:32:30,400 --> 00:32:34,040
I'm not the person I was three or four minutes ago.

500
00:32:34,080 --> 00:32:35,960
It's actually very nice.

501
00:32:36,000 --> 00:32:38,840
Maybe that's a bad thing to say!

502
00:32:38,880 --> 00:32:40,480
SHE LAUGHS > God!

503
00:32:40,520 --> 00:32:43,120
We'll be doing breathalysers every four minutes or so.

504
00:32:43,160 --> 00:32:47,560
'The amount of alcohol I would get would still keep me within the drink-drive limit.

505
00:32:47,600 --> 00:32:50,520
'But I was getting it straight into my blood.

506
00:32:50,560 --> 00:32:51,760
'And that made a difference.'

507
00:32:51,800 --> 00:32:55,040
Dave, I am completely in control.

508
00:32:55,080 --> 00:32:57,040
I'm not so self-conscious.

509
00:32:58,040 --> 00:33:03,960
If you imagine from my point of view, I'm sitting here with a whole bunch of people watching me.

510
00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:07,400
I'm quite happy to be the guinea pig.

511
00:33:07,440 --> 00:33:11,640
But I quite like lying back... HE LAUGHS

512
00:33:13,200 --> 00:33:16,320
I quite like lying here and just getting to it.

513
00:33:16,360 --> 00:33:19,480
Do you feel any drug effects? Zero - not at all, five - al lot.

514
00:33:19,520 --> 00:33:20,880
Three.

515
00:33:20,920 --> 00:33:23,280
Do you like the effects you are feeling now?

516
00:33:23,320 --> 00:33:24,680
Four.

517
00:33:24,720 --> 00:33:27,520
Would you like more of what you've received?Five.

518
00:33:27,560 --> 00:33:29,160
Do you feel high?

519
00:33:29,200 --> 00:33:30,640
Three.

520
00:33:30,680 --> 00:33:32,280
Do you feel intoxicated?

521
00:33:32,320 --> 00:33:33,640
Three.

522
00:33:33,680 --> 00:33:37,080
'The team were used to watching people lose the plot.

523
00:33:37,120 --> 00:33:40,720
'Using this method, they'd gathered data from enough subjects

524
00:33:40,760 --> 00:33:44,800
'to know what was an average brain response to alcohol and what wasn't.'

525
00:33:44,920 --> 00:33:48,080
Yeah.We have about ten minutes more of the infusion.Good.

526
00:33:48,120 --> 00:33:51,000
There's ten more minutes of the dose going up?

527
00:33:52,160 --> 00:33:54,440
Oh, you're toying with me now!

528
00:33:54,480 --> 00:33:56,600
Don't... Just...

529
00:33:56,640 --> 00:33:59,320
It's been a long day, right? It's been a long...

530
00:33:59,360 --> 00:34:02,920
You know, I've been working hard...

531
00:34:02,960 --> 00:34:06,080
It's not just the personal sacrifice, Dave.

532
00:34:06,120 --> 00:34:07,320
< You deserved this.

533
00:34:07,360 --> 00:34:08,960
I've earned this.

534
00:34:12,120 --> 00:34:13,840
I've made my bed here!

535
00:34:22,200 --> 00:34:24,400
Oh, God. Control yourself.

536
00:34:24,440 --> 00:34:29,040
'At the back of my mind, I knew I was part of a scientific experiment.

537
00:34:29,080 --> 00:34:31,360
'But the drug was changing my brain.

538
00:34:31,400 --> 00:34:33,760
'And I was making a fool of myself.'

539
00:34:33,800 --> 00:34:37,080
No, so you're right, it's a very smew...

540
00:34:38,160 --> 00:34:41,120
Smew... It's a very smew...

541
00:34:41,160 --> 00:34:42,720
It's a very smewth...

542
00:34:46,920 --> 00:34:49,280
Do I like this? Big time.

543
00:34:49,320 --> 00:34:51,240
< SHE LAUGHS

544
00:34:51,280 --> 00:34:52,800
Do I want more? Yes.

545
00:34:52,840 --> 00:34:56,000
That's the other thing that worries me a bit...

546
00:34:56,040 --> 00:34:58,760
Yeah, don't turn the rig off.

547
00:35:00,160 --> 00:35:01,480
It's still going!

548
00:35:02,960 --> 00:35:06,040
Well, we only have about 30 seconds left of it.

549
00:35:06,080 --> 00:35:07,080
What?!

550
00:35:07,120 --> 00:35:08,840
What?!

551
00:35:08,880 --> 00:35:11,600
From zero to five, do you feel any drug effects?Four.

552
00:35:11,640 --> 00:35:14,120
Do you like the effects you're feeling?Five.

553
00:35:14,160 --> 00:35:16,960
Would you like more of what you have received?Five.

554
00:35:17,000 --> 00:35:18,680
Do you feel high?

555
00:35:18,720 --> 00:35:20,560
Four.

556
00:35:20,600 --> 00:35:22,200
And do you feel intoxicated?

557
00:35:23,600 --> 00:35:24,600
Four.

558
00:35:24,640 --> 00:35:26,280
Four. All right.

559
00:35:26,320 --> 00:35:29,720
This is a drug that you, thatI, really like.

560
00:35:29,760 --> 00:35:33,120
And it was very...

561
00:35:34,120 --> 00:35:35,200
..euphoric.

562
00:35:35,240 --> 00:35:38,840
The only alarming thing, I think, I'm left with

563
00:35:38,880 --> 00:35:42,840
is a sense that I could have easily have volunteered, if they'd have let me,

564
00:35:42,880 --> 00:35:44,080
for more.

565
00:35:46,280 --> 00:35:48,600
'Next day, it was time to repeat the process.

566
00:35:48,640 --> 00:35:51,160
'But in an even less social setting.

567
00:35:51,200 --> 00:35:54,160
'I would be isolated in the scanner.

568
00:35:54,200 --> 00:35:57,800
'This time they would see exactly what happened in my brain

569
00:35:57,840 --> 00:35:59,640
'once it had been hit with alcohol.

570
00:35:59,680 --> 00:36:03,440
'If I was one of those predisposed to get immense pleasure from drinking,

571
00:36:03,480 --> 00:36:06,320
'it would show up in my brain reward circuitry

572
00:36:06,360 --> 00:36:09,240
'the same as it might after a shot of heroin,

573
00:36:09,280 --> 00:36:10,960
'or sex.'

574
00:36:14,960 --> 00:36:16,360
Six minutes to the infusion.

575
00:36:16,400 --> 00:36:21,080
I'm gonna do a time point at 7 minutes and then one at 15.

576
00:36:21,120 --> 00:36:23,240
We'll do the same on the way up.

577
00:36:25,240 --> 00:36:27,200
Do you feel any drug effects?

578
00:36:27,240 --> 00:36:30,840
Uh, four.

579
00:36:30,880 --> 00:36:34,880
Do you like the effects you're feeling?Five.

580
00:36:36,200 --> 00:36:39,440
Would you like more of what you have received?Five.

581
00:36:39,480 --> 00:36:43,160
Do you feel high?Four.

582
00:36:43,200 --> 00:36:45,160
And do you feel intoxicated?

583
00:36:45,200 --> 00:36:47,480
Three.

584
00:36:55,400 --> 00:36:58,000
OK, great, thank you. We'll come get you out.

585
00:37:01,160 --> 00:37:03,200
'An hour later and it was all over.

586
00:37:03,240 --> 00:37:05,440
'They had what they needed.

587
00:37:05,480 --> 00:37:08,560
'I was left feeling quite affected.'

588
00:37:08,600 --> 00:37:12,000
Luckily, inside there, I wasn't going to operate any machinery.

589
00:37:12,040 --> 00:37:14,400
I was definitely, definitely high.

590
00:37:16,360 --> 00:37:18,440
In a good way!

591
00:37:18,480 --> 00:37:22,840
Today, in there, it's different.

592
00:37:22,880 --> 00:37:25,240
Everything is stripped away.

593
00:37:25,280 --> 00:37:26,360
Everything is gone.

594
00:37:26,400 --> 00:37:31,680
And what I'm left with, I think, was pure pharmacology.

595
00:37:31,720 --> 00:37:38,280
A drug infused again, the same drug infused right into brain HQ.

596
00:37:39,560 --> 00:37:42,280
But I'm alone, I'm in a brain scanner.

597
00:37:44,080 --> 00:37:47,040
And, in a sense, the euphoria is less.

598
00:37:48,840 --> 00:37:54,040
But you're well aware of a powerful drug at work.

599
00:37:54,080 --> 00:37:56,120
It's quite strange.

600
00:38:02,480 --> 00:38:05,720
'But there was more. The team have found a genetic mutation

601
00:38:05,760 --> 00:38:09,960
'in many of the people who have a really strong reaction to alcohol.

602
00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:14,840
'If you get a big kick from drinking, it may mean you have this mutation.

603
00:38:14,880 --> 00:38:16,800
'What if I did?

604
00:38:16,840 --> 00:38:21,320
'They'd taken a blood sample from me and that night were matching my brain images

605
00:38:21,360 --> 00:38:22,920
'with my genetic test result.

606
00:38:22,960 --> 00:38:26,720
'12% of white men have this mutation.

607
00:38:26,760 --> 00:38:29,760
'Given how much I'd enjoyed that alcohol,

608
00:38:29,800 --> 00:38:32,040
'I certainly couldn't rule myself out.

609
00:38:33,480 --> 00:38:35,240
'The next day I'd know for sure.'

610
00:38:45,200 --> 00:38:48,720
It's not just like a neutral thing, like having blood pressure taken.

611
00:38:48,760 --> 00:38:53,320
This could actually be a very important result

612
00:38:53,360 --> 00:38:58,080
that could link with the known family history that I have

613
00:38:58,120 --> 00:38:59,920
for alcoholism.

614
00:38:59,960 --> 00:39:03,200
People vary quite a bit in how they react to alcohol,

615
00:39:03,240 --> 00:39:06,360
both subjectively and in terms of their brain activation.

616
00:39:06,400 --> 00:39:08,400
Let me first show you two extremes.

617
00:39:08,440 --> 00:39:14,800
So here's the brain of a person who reacted with a very high sense of intoxication.

618
00:39:14,840 --> 00:39:19,240
This is basically the critical part of the brain reward circuitry

619
00:39:19,280 --> 00:39:22,720
of both sides and you can see how powerfully it lights up.

620
00:39:22,760 --> 00:39:25,240
That's a clear area of activation.

621
00:39:25,280 --> 00:39:26,520
Absolutely.

622
00:39:26,560 --> 00:39:30,440
So this is one extreme and this person, incidentally,

623
00:39:30,480 --> 00:39:34,480
was family history positive. There were people in his immediate family

624
00:39:34,520 --> 00:39:37,000
who had had alcohol use disorders.

625
00:39:37,040 --> 00:39:39,440
Let's look at the person on the other extreme.

626
00:39:39,480 --> 00:39:41,640
That's easy.There's nothing. Nothing.

627
00:39:41,680 --> 00:39:45,440
This guy, incidentally, did not have a family history of alcoholism,

628
00:39:45,480 --> 00:39:49,560
and did not report any subjective sense of intoxication.

629
00:39:49,600 --> 00:39:51,720
But there's nothing at all. Not at all.

630
00:39:51,760 --> 00:39:56,960
But, of course, these are the two extremes. What do you think you would fall between these two?

631
00:39:57,000 --> 00:40:01,000
I guess I could flip a coin and say in the middle.

632
00:40:01,040 --> 00:40:03,480
Umm... But I know my history... OK.

633
00:40:03,520 --> 00:40:06,640
You could, because you are right in the middle.

634
00:40:06,680 --> 00:40:08,240
Ahhh.

635
00:40:08,280 --> 00:40:10,080
Right in the middle, see?

636
00:40:10,120 --> 00:40:15,360
You have some degree of activation, this key relay station in the brain reward circuitry.

637
00:40:15,400 --> 00:40:18,880
So that has activated following the infusion of alcohol?

638
00:40:18,920 --> 00:40:20,720
Absolutely.

639
00:40:20,760 --> 00:40:24,240
And look at this... We've got all three.

640
00:40:24,280 --> 00:40:28,920
So you would place me right in the middle of that continuum?

641
00:40:28,960 --> 00:40:32,680
In fact, it's not that I would, it's that the numbers would,

642
00:40:32,720 --> 00:40:33,920
because this is you.

643
00:40:33,960 --> 00:40:35,680
Gosh, I'm Mr Average!

644
00:40:35,720 --> 00:40:38,800
You are the Average Joe.

645
00:40:38,840 --> 00:40:42,600
If you fall right in the middle in terms of your response to alcohol,

646
00:40:42,640 --> 00:40:47,440
the likelihood of you having this variant of the OPRM1 gene

647
00:40:47,480 --> 00:40:51,400
that makes people perceive alcohol much more intensely

648
00:40:51,440 --> 00:40:52,680
is very low.

649
00:40:52,720 --> 00:40:57,680
And, in fact, when we determined your gene type at this locus,

650
00:40:57,720 --> 00:40:59,240
you don't have the variant.

651
00:40:59,280 --> 00:41:01,240
I don't have it?You do not.

652
00:41:04,440 --> 00:41:07,000
'Even though I didn't have the gene mutation,

653
00:41:07,040 --> 00:41:10,520
'something about the experience left me feeling quite strange.'

654
00:41:13,280 --> 00:41:18,400
I was being asked to rate how pleasurable the alcohol drug effect was

655
00:41:18,440 --> 00:41:21,480
and also whether I wanted more of it.

656
00:41:21,520 --> 00:41:26,320
I felt I was giving strong ratings to say, yes, it's pleasurable

657
00:41:26,360 --> 00:41:28,560
and yes, I definitely want more.

658
00:41:28,600 --> 00:41:33,280
And...it's interesting to think that there are other people,

659
00:41:33,320 --> 00:41:37,600
other drinkers, that would rate the pleasurable effects

660
00:41:37,640 --> 00:41:42,560
and the desire to get more even more strongly than I was.

661
00:41:42,600 --> 00:41:43,960
"I'll have another wine."

662
00:41:44,000 --> 00:41:47,040
"Would you like another?" "Can I have a large one?"

663
00:41:47,080 --> 00:41:50,280
Soon as you drink, yeah, you're changing.

664
00:41:54,320 --> 00:41:58,000
'What turns us to heavy drinking is not just driven by our genes.

665
00:41:58,040 --> 00:42:01,920
'It's also down to personality and how we deal with life.

666
00:42:03,080 --> 00:42:06,160
'With 20% of UK adults drinking dangerous amounts,

667
00:42:06,200 --> 00:42:10,080
'working out how these factors connect is crucial.

668
00:42:11,840 --> 00:42:14,720
'And this is exactly what they're trying to do in London,

669
00:42:14,760 --> 00:42:16,720
'with children as young as 14.

670
00:42:19,120 --> 00:42:23,000
'At the Institute Of Psychiatry, they've set up an unprecedented study

671
00:42:23,040 --> 00:42:25,200
'involving 2,000 children.

672
00:42:25,240 --> 00:42:28,960
'The aim is to try and work out how a healthy child

673
00:42:29,000 --> 00:42:31,240
'turns into an adult addict.

674
00:42:34,200 --> 00:42:36,760
'For each child, it starts with something simple

675
00:42:36,800 --> 00:42:39,520
'but searching - a personality test.'

676
00:42:39,560 --> 00:42:42,000
"I often spend money until I run out of cash...

677
00:42:43,200 --> 00:42:45,680
"..or get into debt from using too much credit."

678
00:42:47,680 --> 00:42:49,640
I think that's neither true or false.

679
00:42:49,680 --> 00:42:52,520
"I prefer spending money rather than saving it."

680
00:42:55,120 --> 00:42:57,320
Mostly true.

681
00:42:58,920 --> 00:43:01,680
I could see they were looking for particular traits -

682
00:43:01,720 --> 00:43:05,760
impulsivity, reward-seeking, vulnerability to stress

683
00:43:05,800 --> 00:43:09,800
but I wasn't convinced the test could really act as a basis for prediction.

684
00:43:09,840 --> 00:43:14,040
So I brought my scepticism to the scientist behind the scheme - ProfessorSchumann.

685
00:43:16,280 --> 00:43:19,360
Do you think when someone is as young as 14,

686
00:43:19,400 --> 00:43:23,520
can you really measure and distinguish

687
00:43:23,560 --> 00:43:27,560
a young character that's gonna be more or less likely to

688
00:43:27,600 --> 00:43:29,200
seek out alcohol effects?

689
00:43:29,240 --> 00:43:32,880
There are some basic behaviours

690
00:43:32,920 --> 00:43:37,440
that are associated with mental health and mental disorder.

691
00:43:37,480 --> 00:43:42,800
This is known. What we want to find out is what is actually happening in the brain.

692
00:43:42,840 --> 00:43:44,280
Are you OK there?Yes.

693
00:43:44,320 --> 00:43:47,480
'Unlike my experience in Washington,

694
00:43:47,520 --> 00:43:50,720
'in their reward test they wouldn't be receiving alcohol

695
00:43:50,760 --> 00:43:55,240
'but scientists believe that watching how their brain responds to any reward

696
00:43:55,280 --> 00:43:59,520
'will be revealing. The children had to play a game to try and win sweets.'

697
00:44:01,640 --> 00:44:07,840
The question of this task is would you like a smaller reward right now

698
00:44:07,880 --> 00:44:11,360
or would you like the potential of a larger reward later.

699
00:44:11,400 --> 00:44:15,840
People who are very reward dependent would want a small reward right away.

700
00:44:15,880 --> 00:44:18,040
What would that mean in terms of drinking?

701
00:44:18,080 --> 00:44:24,200
You may find alcohol gives you reward, if you're then very dependent on the reward,

702
00:44:24,240 --> 00:44:26,280
you will be more likely to drink.

703
00:44:26,320 --> 00:44:31,440
None of these children currently have any known predisposition to drinking,

704
00:44:31,480 --> 00:44:35,920
but their brain images will be linked to detailed genetic and personality tests

705
00:44:35,960 --> 00:44:39,600
to try and form a profile of a person who is at risk.

706
00:44:41,320 --> 00:44:44,040
You can't, I guess, look round corners at this point.

707
00:44:44,080 --> 00:44:46,840
Could you be wrong?Well, yeah, sure.

708
00:44:46,880 --> 00:44:48,520
HE LAUGHS

709
00:44:48,560 --> 00:44:52,160
I mean that's why we're making studies because we don't know exactly.

710
00:44:52,200 --> 00:44:57,320
But I think very much will depend on asking the kids,

711
00:44:57,360 --> 00:45:02,000
asking the adolescents in say, four years' time

712
00:45:02,040 --> 00:45:05,800
once they have actually been exposed to alcohol drinking.

713
00:45:05,840 --> 00:45:10,960
Some of them will have...a risk-drinking pattern,

714
00:45:11,000 --> 00:45:13,400
perhaps even be dependent already.

715
00:45:13,440 --> 00:45:18,320
Then we can move back and say, "OK, this could have predicted it."

716
00:45:23,040 --> 00:45:27,560
Understanding exactly who will turn to drink is a complicated question,

717
00:45:27,600 --> 00:45:33,800
but the one thing I know as an addiction expert is that whichever drug people choose,

718
00:45:33,840 --> 00:45:35,960
their relationship with it will change.

719
00:45:37,000 --> 00:45:40,640
Weare all capable of slipping into a serious drinking problem.

720
00:45:42,040 --> 00:45:47,120
I didn't want my alcohol in the morning, but come lunchtime... Let's go have a drink.

721
00:45:47,160 --> 00:45:48,720
Must have a drink.

722
00:45:48,760 --> 00:45:53,720
Your body starts getting accustomed to having a certain time of the day

723
00:45:53,760 --> 00:45:55,200
where you will drink.

724
00:45:55,240 --> 00:46:00,480
Even though you say, "No, no, no," consciously up there it's waiting for that time to come.

725
00:46:01,840 --> 00:46:04,760
From what I know with other addictions,

726
00:46:04,800 --> 00:46:08,840
people will quietly start to organise their life around their access to the drug.

727
00:46:08,880 --> 00:46:11,320
And sothey will with drink.

728
00:46:11,360 --> 00:46:15,200
Their relationship with alcohol has changed.

729
00:46:15,240 --> 00:46:19,760
It's become a much more regular part of their life,

730
00:46:19,800 --> 00:46:23,760
much more at centre stage, than previously.

731
00:46:23,800 --> 00:46:25,560
You constantly think about it.

732
00:46:25,600 --> 00:46:28,880
Wake up - you're thinking about it. Asleep - you're thinking about it.

733
00:46:28,920 --> 00:46:32,760
I don't think it strikes you at the time

734
00:46:32,800 --> 00:46:35,360
how often you're drinking and how much you are

735
00:46:35,400 --> 00:46:37,600
until you try to stop.

736
00:46:37,640 --> 00:46:39,920
That's what happened to me - I tried to stop.

737
00:46:39,960 --> 00:46:41,840
I'm not in control no more.

738
00:46:41,880 --> 00:46:43,840
I'm not able to get up so...

739
00:46:45,360 --> 00:46:48,560
I knew what the drink was making me...

740
00:46:48,600 --> 00:46:51,040
It's making me... How can I put it?

741
00:46:51,080 --> 00:46:52,560
Dependent on it.

742
00:46:52,600 --> 00:46:54,560
I'm starting to become dependent

743
00:46:54,600 --> 00:46:59,200
and something I said I would never be, I'm slowly becoming.

744
00:46:59,240 --> 00:47:06,400
What also starts to slowly change is the amount you'd need to drink to get the same effect.

745
00:47:06,440 --> 00:47:10,320
An alcoholic isn't just created overnight.

746
00:47:10,360 --> 00:47:15,920
It seems to take years of subtle incremental changes.

747
00:47:17,400 --> 00:47:21,120
That was really what happened in the case of my father.

748
00:47:21,160 --> 00:47:24,720
Changes occurred gradually over time.

749
00:47:24,760 --> 00:47:29,840
His drinking became more and more intensive and sustained and problematic.

750
00:47:29,880 --> 00:47:34,840
No-one sets out to be an alcoholic and he certainly didn't.

751
00:47:34,880 --> 00:47:37,040
It just happened.

752
00:47:42,440 --> 00:47:45,080
Alcohol is SUCH a dangerous drug.

753
00:47:45,120 --> 00:47:49,400
Already 7% of UK adults are showing signs of dependency

754
00:47:49,440 --> 00:47:55,600
and in less than a decade the number of us going tohospital because of drink has gone up 70%.

755
00:47:55,640 --> 00:47:58,400
So should we even drink at all?

756
00:48:00,680 --> 00:48:03,760
A colleague of mine has come up with a seriously radical idea.

757
00:48:03,800 --> 00:48:09,000
He wants to eliminate alcohol, to design an alternative drug -

758
00:48:09,040 --> 00:48:12,440
one that you could simply add to a soft drink.

759
00:48:12,480 --> 00:48:16,880
But the difference is itwould not be addictive, it would not harm your brain or your body.

760
00:48:16,920 --> 00:48:20,280
You'd get all the benefits of drink without the danger.

761
00:48:21,880 --> 00:48:28,560
If his drug works, ideally the next generation of children will never even touchalcohol.

762
00:48:29,760 --> 00:48:33,640
He's in the research stage and I'm going be part of the experiment.

763
00:48:34,680 --> 00:48:39,280
David, I've sometimes heard it said alcohol is so damned dangerous

764
00:48:39,320 --> 00:48:42,360
that if it was discovered today, it would be banned.

765
00:48:42,400 --> 00:48:44,440
That is undoubtedly the case.

766
00:48:44,480 --> 00:48:47,800
We are currently banning drugs

767
00:48:47,840 --> 00:48:52,560
that are very similar to alcohol, like GHB, GBL, butanediol.

768
00:48:52,600 --> 00:48:58,480
These are all alcohol equivalents, sedating drugs which are very dangerous in overdose.

769
00:48:58,520 --> 00:49:00,360
Those are banned or being banned

770
00:49:00,400 --> 00:49:02,880
and I've no doubt if alcohol was discovered today

771
00:49:02,920 --> 00:49:05,560
it would be controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act.

772
00:49:05,600 --> 00:49:09,920
If I'm going to take this similar, but not identical compound,

773
00:49:09,960 --> 00:49:12,360
what am I gonna experience?

774
00:49:12,400 --> 00:49:15,440
Well, I'm not gonna give you any suggestions.

775
00:49:15,480 --> 00:49:18,880
I want you to see how you feel on the drug.OK.

776
00:49:18,920 --> 00:49:23,280
I want you to reflect during the process and afterwards

777
00:49:23,320 --> 00:49:24,880
how it compares with alcohol.

778
00:49:24,920 --> 00:49:27,880
Walk as straight as you can.

779
00:49:27,920 --> 00:49:31,160
'The drug was likely to make me feel tipsy,

780
00:49:31,200 --> 00:49:34,720
'so before I even took the pill they had to check my normal balance.

781
00:49:35,280 --> 00:49:39,080
'It was at this point thatthe enormity of what I was doing hit home.'

782
00:49:39,120 --> 00:49:40,440
That's great.

783
00:49:40,480 --> 00:49:43,640
As I start to think about whether this is gonna work or not,

784
00:49:43,680 --> 00:49:48,080
I'm left with a sense that actually it could be quite a powerful effect.

785
00:49:48,120 --> 00:49:50,920
Maybe it'll give me some effects I don't like.

786
00:49:50,960 --> 00:49:52,640
So I'm a bit..

787
00:49:52,680 --> 00:49:54,480
Now I think about it,

788
00:49:54,520 --> 00:49:59,800
I'm a more apprehensive subject than I was a few minutes ago.

789
00:49:59,840 --> 00:50:02,880
'This was a highly experimental drug -

790
00:50:02,920 --> 00:50:05,720
'only a few people had ever tried it

791
00:50:05,760 --> 00:50:12,120
'and the condition was that I was in a hospital, closely observed with resuscitation equipment on hand.'

792
00:50:12,160 --> 00:50:13,320
Perfect.

793
00:50:15,960 --> 00:50:18,640
Will you take each of these, please? OK.

794
00:50:18,680 --> 00:50:20,840
Down the hatch?Down the hatch.OK.

795
00:50:20,880 --> 00:50:24,800
'The drug would target some of the same receptors in my brain that alcohol does,

796
00:50:24,840 --> 00:50:26,520
'but I didn't know which ones.'

797
00:50:26,560 --> 00:50:27,880
Thank you.

798
00:50:29,480 --> 00:50:34,920
So I just, um...sit back... Sit back and do whatever you'd do if you were drinking, yes.

799
00:50:34,960 --> 00:50:38,960
Don't know if you want to share that with us. THEY LAUGH

800
00:50:43,440 --> 00:50:45,920
I can definitely feel something.

801
00:50:45,960 --> 00:50:49,520
And what I'm feeling is er...

802
00:50:49,560 --> 00:50:55,800
relaxed, there's beginning to be a slight tendency to want to smile

803
00:50:55,840 --> 00:50:59,160
which for some reason I'm controlling at the moment.

804
00:50:59,200 --> 00:51:01,840
But I'm beginning to feel a little lighter

805
00:51:01,880 --> 00:51:04,200
and my mood is definitely

806
00:51:04,240 --> 00:51:07,080
much higher than it was

807
00:51:07,120 --> 00:51:08,640
this morning.

808
00:51:08,680 --> 00:51:11,800
I arrived a bit stressed, a long journey and...

809
00:51:11,840 --> 00:51:13,480
rather nice now.

810
00:51:13,520 --> 00:51:16,080
There was a smile. LAUGHS

811
00:51:16,120 --> 00:51:20,880
A short while later I made a surprising judgement.

812
00:51:20,920 --> 00:51:25,760
If I compare this feeling to alcohol, it's quite hard to do.

813
00:51:25,800 --> 00:51:31,800
I'd have to say, that I'd vote for the three pills from Dr Nutt.

814
00:51:31,840 --> 00:51:33,560
Em...

815
00:51:33,600 --> 00:51:38,200
There's something more... smooth and pleasurable

816
00:51:38,240 --> 00:51:42,000
and...just relaxing and...

817
00:51:43,520 --> 00:51:45,120
Yeah, just nice.

818
00:51:47,600 --> 00:51:50,600
'Alcohol works on so many systems in the brain -

819
00:51:50,640 --> 00:51:54,200
'so far this drug was successfully tranquilising me -

820
00:51:54,240 --> 00:51:57,320
'I felt emotionally calm and physicallytotally relaxed.'

821
00:51:58,640 --> 00:52:01,440
If you can stand on the red line.

822
00:52:04,400 --> 00:52:06,200
The floor's not level.

823
00:52:06,240 --> 00:52:07,840
You've changed the floor.

824
00:52:07,880 --> 00:52:11,160
Are you having to work harder? Yes, a lot harder!

825
00:52:11,200 --> 00:52:12,840
HE LAUGHS

826
00:52:12,880 --> 00:52:15,960
That's quite strange.

827
00:52:16,000 --> 00:52:19,040
'I couldn't walk, but I didn't care.'

828
00:52:19,080 --> 00:52:20,760
David...How are you doing?

829
00:52:22,440 --> 00:52:23,920
Are you still awake?

830
00:52:23,960 --> 00:52:27,280
Do some people fall asleep? Yeah, yeah. Some people do.

831
00:52:27,320 --> 00:52:29,120
It's very nice.

832
00:52:29,160 --> 00:52:32,320
Not exactly the same as with alcohol.

833
00:52:32,360 --> 00:52:34,480
Can you comment on the differences?

834
00:52:34,520 --> 00:52:39,920
Maybe less of a euphoric high and more of a body experience.

835
00:52:39,960 --> 00:52:42,800
I guess that's what the pharmacology would tell us.

836
00:52:42,840 --> 00:52:45,960
So we can deal with that side of alcohol

837
00:52:46,000 --> 00:52:49,840
but the challenge is more trying to get more of the upside.Yeah.

838
00:52:49,880 --> 00:52:55,680
This is probably like caveman first meets rotten fruit. THEY LAUGH

839
00:52:55,720 --> 00:52:59,360
'David Nutt's drug couldn't imitate all of the effects of alcohol

840
00:53:00,320 --> 00:53:04,840
'but it did have a unique bonus. It's effects could be reversed.

841
00:53:04,880 --> 00:53:07,120
'This is impossible with alcohol.

842
00:53:07,160 --> 00:53:12,280
'There is no known antidote to that drug. But one injection after this new alternative

843
00:53:12,320 --> 00:53:14,720
'and you're back to normal.'

844
00:53:14,760 --> 00:53:18,240
So you know what I'm going to do now?Take it all away from me.

845
00:53:18,280 --> 00:53:19,280
Yes, we are.

846
00:53:22,360 --> 00:53:26,040
Feel anything?Yes, a slight cold sensation.

847
00:53:26,080 --> 00:53:27,760
Put this back on.

848
00:53:28,840 --> 00:53:31,200
Right.Definitely feeling something. Yeah?

849
00:53:31,240 --> 00:53:33,840
Yes.So you're waking up now, are you?

850
00:53:36,000 --> 00:53:39,840
It's really strange because the room has...

851
00:53:39,880 --> 00:53:43,800
The focus that I have around the room has tightened.

852
00:53:45,120 --> 00:53:49,480
You were a bit soft-focussed a minute ago.

853
00:53:49,520 --> 00:53:53,040
Definitely... It's as if someone's polished the windows.Yes.

854
00:53:55,080 --> 00:53:56,920
And so I left.

855
00:53:56,960 --> 00:54:02,480
But within the hour I started to feel more drowsy thanever, like in a waking dream.

856
00:54:03,520 --> 00:54:10,360
I had been warned that the reversing drug might not last, but I hadn't expected this.

857
00:54:14,960 --> 00:54:17,480
I don't quite know what to make of it really.

858
00:54:24,000 --> 00:54:28,880
I understand an alcohol hangover all too well...

859
00:54:28,920 --> 00:54:31,160
I try and avoid having them but when

860
00:54:31,200 --> 00:54:33,360
I have one I know exactly what it is.

861
00:54:33,400 --> 00:54:39,560
This is unknown and I'm not sure what to do to ease the symptoms.

862
00:54:39,600 --> 00:54:43,560
I'm also not clear about how it's going to last.

863
00:54:43,600 --> 00:54:48,320
There's a sort of discomfort and slight edge of worry

864
00:54:48,360 --> 00:54:53,120
that is borne out of that new substance.

865
00:54:53,160 --> 00:54:56,040
I'm not in my hangover comfort zone.

866
00:54:56,080 --> 00:54:58,760
HE LAUGHS If that makes sense.

867
00:55:00,880 --> 00:55:05,200
'That's one of the reasons alcohol is going to be such a hard act to follow

868
00:55:05,240 --> 00:55:07,920
'but also why David has to keep trying.

869
00:55:07,960 --> 00:55:14,640
'Alcohol's become the devil we know. We've even forgiven it for the pain it causes.'

870
00:55:23,840 --> 00:55:27,120
I woke up thinking, "I wonder what happened last night?"

871
00:55:27,160 --> 00:55:29,640
You never think about stopping. You keep drinking.

872
00:55:29,680 --> 00:55:32,120
Hangover's are horrendous.

873
00:55:32,160 --> 00:55:36,920
I woke up this morning and I was like, "Oh, I feel rough."

874
00:55:42,200 --> 00:55:46,520
So it's the end of the night and the beginning of a new day.

875
00:55:46,560 --> 00:55:53,000
And I've seen so many stories where alcohol has been an integral part -

876
00:55:53,040 --> 00:55:58,640
celebrations, and then the cruel and nasty side of alcohol, I guess.

877
00:55:58,680 --> 00:56:02,840
The fights, disappointments, arguments.

878
00:56:02,880 --> 00:56:06,840
And what I'm seeing is the clear-up operation.

879
00:56:06,880 --> 00:56:09,720
People all around, really, tidying up...

880
00:56:09,760 --> 00:56:12,120
bottles, hundreds of them.

881
00:56:13,480 --> 00:56:16,720
And how many countless thousands of people,

882
00:56:16,760 --> 00:56:21,360
in an hour from now, will wake up with a rotten hangover,

883
00:56:21,400 --> 00:56:25,480
say to themselves, "That's it. I'm not doing that again."

884
00:56:25,520 --> 00:56:29,480
And sure as day, by the time evening comes,

885
00:56:29,520 --> 00:56:31,080
they'll have another drink.

886
00:56:32,240 --> 00:56:36,040
Once it's got its hooks into you, you really do know.

887
00:56:36,080 --> 00:56:38,800
It's become my mate.

888
00:56:38,840 --> 00:56:43,960
So the answer to, "How much should I really drink?" is in some ways very simple.

889
00:56:44,000 --> 00:56:47,640
21 units for a man, 14 for a woman.

890
00:56:47,680 --> 00:56:52,280
But what I've learnt in making this film is that the answer is complicated.

891
00:56:52,320 --> 00:56:56,880
Each of us has a particular relationship with alcohol from childhood

892
00:56:56,920 --> 00:57:02,360
and the important thing I think is to try and look at that relationship and ask somesimple questions.

893
00:57:02,400 --> 00:57:08,120
What it's for? Why do I do it? Could I do withoutit?

894
00:57:08,160 --> 00:57:13,720
Because only then can you really answer the question for yourself.

895
00:57:13,760 --> 00:57:15,960
So where does that leave me?

896
00:57:16,000 --> 00:57:19,280
Well, I like alcohol. I can't deny it.

897
00:57:19,320 --> 00:57:20,840
I don't want to deny it.

898
00:57:20,880 --> 00:57:26,440
But what I realise is that I have an uneasy relationship with this drug

899
00:57:26,480 --> 00:57:31,520
because in order to not get into difficulty with it,

900
00:57:31,560 --> 00:57:35,120
I have to think, I have to be aware of what I'm doing.

901
00:57:35,160 --> 00:57:40,320
I can never, paradoxically, I can never relax with alcohol.

902
00:57:40,360 --> 00:57:43,800
I've got to be on guard. What an odd thing to think?

903
00:57:46,880 --> 00:57:49,320
I wish I'd never started drinking.

904
00:57:50,800 --> 00:57:53,640
WOMAN:I like it. I like drink.

905
00:57:53,680 --> 00:57:57,480
MAN: I'm drinking because it becomes a way of escape.

906
00:58:00,200 --> 00:58:02,920
So I'm asking myself, "Where are we going from here?"

907
00:58:02,960 --> 00:58:07,720
As a psychologist, it seems to me that as a society,

908
00:58:07,760 --> 00:58:10,880
we're not even contemplating change.

909
00:58:10,920 --> 00:58:15,720
We seem comfortable with continuing to drink and the signs are

910
00:58:15,760 --> 00:58:17,880
drinking more and more and more.

911
00:58:19,160 --> 00:58:23,760
In the end, there's one question for each and everyone of us.

912
00:58:23,800 --> 00:58:26,000
"Is it really worth it?"

913
00:58:35,440 --> 00:58:38,440
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