Corticosteroid-Dependent Plasticity Mediates Compulsive Alcohol Drinking in Rats

• Published in: The Journal of neuroscience Vol. 32; no. 22; pp. 7563 - 7571
• Main Authors: Vendruscolo, Leandro F., Barbier, Estelle, Schlosburg, Joel E., Misra, Kaushik K., Whitfield, Timothy W., Logrip, Marian L., Rivier, Catherine, Repunte-Canonigo, Vez, Zorrilla, Eric P., Sanna, Pietro P., Heilig, Markus, Koob, George F.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Society for Neuroscience 30.05.2012
• Subjects: Alcohol Drinking - drug therapy; Alcohol Drinking - metabolism; Alcohol Drinking - pathology; Analysis of Variance; Animals; Behavior, Addictive - drug therapy; Behavior, Addictive - metabolism; Brain - metabolism; Central Nervous System Depressants - administration & dosage; Compulsive Behavior - physiopathology; Conditioning, Operant - drug effects; Ethanol - administration & dosage; Hormone Antagonists - therapeutic use; Male; Mifepristone - therapeutic use; Rats; Rats, Wistar; Receptors, Glucocorticoid - genetics; Receptors, Glucocorticoid - metabolism; Receptors, Mineralocorticoid - genetics; Receptors, Mineralocorticoid - metabolism; Reinforcement Schedule; RNA, Messenger - metabolism; Self Administration; Substance Withdrawal Syndrome - drug therapy; Substance Withdrawal Syndrome - metabolism; Up-Regulation - drug effects

Alcoholism is characterized by a compulsion to seek and ingest alcohol, loss of control over intake, and the emergence of a negative emotional state during abstinence. We hypothesized that sustained activation of neuroendocrine stress systems (e.g., corticosteroid release via the hypothalamic-pituit...