title: Reinforcement of an alternative behavior as a model of recovery and relapse in the rat.
abstract: A preclinical model that includes measures of alternative behavior and drug-seeking could improve our understanding of the processes involved in successful recovery; however current preclinical models of relapse do not measure alternative behavior. We assessed the persistence of food-maintained responding and the resumption of ethanol-maintained responding after ethanol-maintained responding was reduced by changing the response requirement for concurrently available food. Ethanol (10%, w/v) was always available following 5 responses (FR5). A 16 kHz tone indicating food delivery followed 150 responses (FR150) resulted in ethanol-predominate responding and substantial amounts of ethanol were earned (0.47 g/kg per 30-min session) and consumed. An 8 kHz tone indicating food delivery followed 5 responses (FR5) for 1, 2, 4, or 16 consecutive sessions reduced ethanol-maintained responding despite unchanged ethanol availability. Ethanol-maintained responding resumed upon subsequent presentation of the 16 kHz tone. However, more responses occurred on the food lever before 5 responses occurred on the ethanol lever as the number of preceding FR5 food sessions increased. These results suggest that alternative reinforcement may reduce control by discriminative stimuli that occasion ethanol-seeking and is consistent with the risk of relapse declining with longer periods of recovery because of the strengthening of alternative behavior.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78229, USA. ginsburg@uthscsa.edu
authors.forename: Brett C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Ginsburg
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Lamb
mesh_terms: D000437:Alcoholism / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D058999:Drug-Seeking Behavior; D000431:Ethanol / Q000097:blood / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005108:Extinction, Psychological; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D011917:Rats, Inbred Lew; D012008:Recurrence
chemical_list: D000431:Ethanol