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. 2021 Jul 23:410:113345.
doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2021.113345. Epub 2021 May 5.

Resurgence of alcohol seeking following abstinence induced by punishment in male and female rats

Gabrielle M Sutton  1 , Anthony N Nist  1 , Rusty W Nall  1 , Kaitlyn O Browning  1 , Timothy A Shahan  2
Affiliations

Resurgence of alcohol seeking following abstinence induced by punishment in male and female rats

Gabrielle M Sutton et al. Behav Brain Res. .

Abstract

To better approximate the human condition, animal models of relapse to drug and alcohol seeking have increasingly employed negative consequences to generate abstinence. Here we report the first demonstration of relapse to punishment-suppressed alcohol seeking induced by loss of non-drug reward (i.e., resurgence). We also report the first examination of potential sex differences in any form of relapse to alcohol seeking following suppression by punishment. Male and female rats first pressed a lever for 20 % oral alcohol. Next, lever pressing for one group continued to produce alcohol, but also produced occasional footshock. For another group, lever pressing similarly produced alcohol and occasional footshock, and a nose-poke response produced alternative non-drug reward (i.e., food). Males showed similar suppression of alcohol seeking by punishment alone and punishment + alternative non-drug reward, whereas females showed less suppression by punishment alone. Finally, when alternative reinforcement and punishment were suspended, resurgence occurred for both sexes in the group that previously had access to non-drug reward. Exposure to and then removal of punishment alone did not produce relapse for males, but it did for females. These results suggest that loss of alternative non-drug reward can generate relapse to alcohol seeking following abstinence induced by negative consequences. Future research should further examine the role of potential sex differences in sensitivity to punishment and how such differences may contribute to relapse more broadly.

Keywords: Alcohol; Punishment; Relapse; Resurgence; Sex differences.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations of interest

None

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Alcohol-lever presses/min and alcohol consumption for the last five sessions of Phase 1 (baseline). Bars are means with SEM. Individual rat data are overlaid.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Alcohol-lever presses/min (mean, SEM) for all sessions of Phase 2 (punishment).
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Alcohol lever presses/min (mean, SEM) for the average of the last three sessions of Phase 2 (punishment) and all sessions of Phase 3 (resurgence test).
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Alternative food-seeking response/min (mean, SEM) for all sessions of Phase 3 (resurgence test).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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