[Neurophysiologic organization of the pathologic craving for alcohol].

The authors examined the functional shifts occurring at various levels of the non-specific activation system of the brain in positive (euphoria in the state of alcoholic intoxication) and negative (anxiety in the period of abstinence) emotional states. An analysis of the EEG, as well as the EMG of the articulation muscles gives one grounds to suppose that the euphoria is accompanied by a weakening of the activation on the part of mesencephalon, and, at the same time, an intensification of the diencephalo-limbic activation processes. On the contrary, the anxiety is accompanied by mesencephalic hyperactivation which is, probably, eliminated after taking a dose of alcohol.