Ethanol

Ethanol (ethyl alcohol) has anxiolytic and sedative effects, but its toxic potential outweighs its benefits. Ethanol is a CNS depressant, producing sedation and, ultimately, hypnosis with increasing dosage. Because ethanol has a shallow dose–response curve, sedation occurs over a wide dosage range. It is readily absorbed orally and has a volume of distribution close to that of total body water. Ethanol is metabolized primarily in the liver, first to acetaldehyde by alcohol dehydrogenase and then to acetate by aldehyde dehydrogenase. Elimination is mostly through the kidney, but a fraction is excreted through the lungs.