Alcohol (drug)

**Alcohol**, is (an ingredient or) the active ingredient in alcoholic drinks such as beer, wine, and distilled spirits (hard liquor). Alcohol is sometimes called by its chemical name **ethanol**.

Alcohol is a central nervous system (CNS) depressant. This means that alcohol lowers electrical activity of neurons in the brain. This causes drunkenness. Alcohol can also cause euphoria, decreased anxiety, sociability, sedation, and lowered cognitive, memory, motor, and sensory function.

## Related pages

- Rum-running
- Pigovian taxes
- Sin taxes
- Binge drinking
- Drug-related crime

## Other websites

- The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism maintains a database of alcohol-related health effects. ETOH Archival Database (1972–2003) Alcohol and Alcohol Problems Science Database.
- WHO fact sheet on alcohol
- ChEBI – biology related
- Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes signal transduction pathway: KEGG – human alcohol addiction

## Infobox (drug)

- **drug name**: Ethanol
- **iupac name**: ethanol
- **image**: Ethanol-2D-skeletal.svg
- **image class**: skin-invert-image
- **width**: 175px
- **alt**: Skeletal formula of ethanol
- **imagel**: Ethanol-3D-balls.png
- **image classl**: bg-transparent
- **widthl**: 125px
- **altl**: Ball-and-stick model of ethanol
- **imager**: Ethanol-3D-vdW.png
- **image classr**: bg-transparent
- **widthr**: 125px
- **altr**: Space-filling model of ethanol
- **synonyms**: Absolute alcohol; alcohol (); cologne spirit; drinking alcohol; ethanol (); ethylic alcohol; EtOH; ethyl alcohol; ethyl hydrate; ethyl hydroxide; ethylol; grain alcohol; hydroxyethane; methylcarbinol
- **dependency liability**: Moderate
- **addiction liability**: Moderate (10–15%)
- **routes of administration**: Common: Oral administration, By mouth
 Uncommon: Alcohol enema, Suppository, Alcohol inhalation, inhalation, Vodka eyeballing, ophthalmic, Alcohol powder, insufflation, injection (medicine), injection
- **pregnancy category**: X (Contraindicated in pregnancy)
- **legal au**: Unscheduled
- **legal br**: Unscheduled
- **legal ca**: Unscheduled
- **legal de**: Unscheduled
- **legal nz**: Unscheduled
- **legal uk**: GSL
- **legal us**: Unscheduled
- **legal un**: Unscheduled
- **legal status**: In general: Legal for recreational drug use, recreational use, except in Muslim countries of Middle East and parts of North Africa, and South Asia
- **class**: Depressant; anxiolytic; analgesic; euphoriant; sedative; emetic; diuretic; general anesthetic
- **bioavailability**: 80%+
- **protein bound**: Weakly or not at all
- **metabolism**: Liver (90%):
• Alcohol dehydrogenase
•  (CYP2E1)
- **metabolites**: Acetaldehyde; acetic acid; acetyl-CoA; carbon dioxide; Properties of water, water; ethyl glucuronide; ethyl sulfate
- **onset**: Cmax (pharmacology), Peak concentrations:
• Range: 30–90 minutes
• Mean: 45–60 minutes
• Fasting: 30 minutes
- **elimination half-life**: Zero-order kinetics, Constant-rate elimination at typical concentrations:
• Range: 10–34 mg/dL/hour
• Mean: 15-18 mg/dL/hr
At very high concentrations (t<sub>1/2</sub>): 4.0–4.5 hours
- **duration of action**: 6–16 hours (amount of time that levels are detectable)
- **excretion**: • Major: Ethanol metabolism, metabolism (into carbon dioxide and water)
• Minor: urine, breath, sweat (5–10%)
- **cas number**: 64-17-5
- **atc prefix**: V03
- **atc suffix**: AZ01
- **pubchem**: 702
- **iuphar ligand**: 2299
- **drugbank**: DB00898
- **chemspiderid**: 682
- **unii**: 3K9958V90M
- **kegg**: D00068
- **chebi**: 16236
- **chembl**: 545
- **pdb ligand**: EOH
- **c**: 2
- **h**: 6
- **o**: 1
- **smiles**: CCO
- **stdinchi**: 1S/C2H6O/c1-2-3/h3H,2H2,1H3
- **stdinchikey**: LFQSCWFLJHTTHZ-UHFFFAOYSA-N
- **density**: 0.7893
- **density notes**: (at 20 °C)
- **melting point**: −114.14 ± 0.03
- **boiling point**: 78.24 ± 0.09
- **solubility**: Miscible