title: Experimental anxiety and the reinforcing effects of ethanol in rats.
abstract: In order to examine the relationship between anxiety and reinforcing effects of alcohol, drug-naive male Wistar rats weighing 250-300 g were classified as "anxious" and "non-anxious" in the elevated plusmaze test. A conditioned place preference test was then used to investigate the reinforcing effects of ethanol (EtOH) on these animals. On 2 alternate days, groups of "anxious", "non-anxious" and "normal" rats received intraperitoneal (i.p.) injections of EtOH (0.5, 1.0 or 1.5 g/kg) immediately before a 15-min confinement to the white compartment. On the 2 intervening days the same rats received i.p. injections of saline before confinement to the opposite compartment. On day 5, a 15-min free-choice test was carried out with no injections. Rats classified as "anxious" showed a significant, though not dose-dependent preference for all doses of ethanol compared to saline-treated animals. These data demonstrate that rats regarded as "anxious" are more sensitive to the reinforcing effects of EtOH than "non-anxious" and "normal" Wistar rats and emphasize the relevance of the basal levels of anxiety of rats when trying to detect the reinforcing effects of EtOH.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Farmacologia, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Brasil.
authors.forename: S L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Blatt
authors.forename: R N
authors.initials: RN
authors.lastname: Takahashi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D002492:Central Nervous System Depressants / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000431:Ethanol / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology
chemical_list: D002492:Central Nervous System Depressants; D000431:Ethanol