Chronic alcohol drinking and subsequent withdrawal in rats exposed to different diurnal distributions of schedule-induction sessions.
Eight rats drank large amounts of 6.25% alcohol as a consequence of daily exposure to 6 hours of schedule-induction sessions in which a small food pellet was delivered every 90 sec. Rats having a 1-hr session every 4 hr showed slightly more withdrawal distress than rats having a 6-hr session every 24 hr. More significant may have been two different kinds of indication of possible loss of control over drinking by the inducing schedule. Rats experiencing six sessions a day did not drink water excessively when it replaced the alcohol solution. Rats experiencing one session a day drank half their total alcohol intake between sessions. If the schedule-induction procedure loses control over alcohol drinking, its chronic application to animals fails as a model of the factors that maintain excessive alcohol use in humans.
D000437:Alcoholism / Q000503:physiopathology*; D000818:Animals; D002940:Circadian Rhythm; D002149:Energy Intake; D000431:Ethanol / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000097:blood; D005508:Food Deprivation; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D012055:Reinforcement Schedule; D013375:Substance Withdrawal Syndrome / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013997:Time Factors
D000431:Ethanol