Suchergebnisse

Der Psychiater Emil Kraepelin (1856-1926) war eng mit der Entstehung der Abstinenzbewegung in Deutschland um 1900 verbunden. Sein persönlicher Alkoholkonsum entsprach zunächst durchaus den zeittypischen Gewohnheiten; erst 1895 entschloss er sich zur Totalabstinenz. Hierfür dürften weniger die Ergebnisse von Kraepelins experimentalpsychologischen Untersuchungen über die psychotropen Wirkungen des Alkohols verantwortlich gewesen sein, sondern eher der wachsende Einfluss der Degenerationstherapie und der Rassenhygiene auf sein ätiologisches und therapeutisch-prophylaktisches Denken. Zur Eindämmung des »Zivilisationsgiftes« Alkohol engagierte sich Kraepelin in vielfältigen praktischen Aktivitäten. Der rassenhygienische Hintergrund der Abstinenzbewegung um 1900 spiegelt generell die Bedeutung der jeweils vorherrschenden medizinischen Krankheitskonzepte für die Haltung gegenüber potenziell abhängigkeitserzeugenden Substanzen wider.

Abstract. Background. The glucose hypothesis of self-control posits that acts of self-control may draw upon glucose as a source of energy, leading to a decrease in blood glucose levels after exerting self-control, mirroring the temporary depletion of self-control, but supporting evidence is mixed and inconclusive. This might partly be due to using methods that are not suitable to reliably quantify glucose utilization. Aims. We aimed at examining whether self-control exertion leads to an increase in glucose utilization. Method. In a sample of N = 30 healthy participants (50% women, age 26.5 ± 3.5 years) we combined a hyperinsulinemic euglycemic glucose clamp (a well-established and validated procedure in experimental endocrinology to reliably quantify systemic glucose utilization) with a standard self-control dual-task paradigm. In the first task, the experimental group completed a variation of a paper-and-pencil crossing out letter task (COLT) that demanded self-control; the control group completed a variation of the COLT that did not demand self-control. The second task for both groups was a computerized two-color word Stroop which demanded self-control. Results. We did not find a significant main effect for time, nor a time × group interaction with respect to glucose utilization, which indicates that glucose utilization did not differ significantly over time or between groups. Limitations. Due to the time-consuming and complicated clamp method, our sample was rather small. Conclusion. Our results revealed little evidence for the notion that self-control efforts are associated with a relevant increase in peripheral glucose utilization.