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Rodents with a Taste for Alcohol Aid in NIAAA Research
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Brief Description:
Rats bred to prefer alcohol aid NIAAA in the search for links between alcohol abuse and anxiety.
Transcript:
Akinso: Rodents with a taste for alcohol may be useful in studying the link between anxiety and alcohol abuse in humans. The findings by researchers supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, part of the National Institutes of Health, could provide important clues about alcohol-drinking behaviors in humans. The study identified a possible neurobiological pathway that underlies the relationship between anxiety and alcohol drinking. Researchers used rats, specifically bred for the study — one group bred to prefer alcohol, and one other group bred to not prefer it. The rats that preferred alcohol tended to show more anxiety like behaviors while in a maze, and would then drink even more alcohol according to Dr. Roger Sorensen, a Program Official at the NIAAA.
Sorensen: This study is showing that negative reinforcing behavior, this anxiety, can also contribute to the risk of developing alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence type of behaviors and disorders. I think that needs to be addressed as well as we are trying to understand the whole process where by people who choose to drink alcohol move through the progression to develop alcohol addiction.
Akinso: Doctor Sorensen says studies like this could eventually identify ways to regulate the neurological link between anxiety and alcohol use. This is Wally Akinso at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland.
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| Date: 10/28/2005 |
Reporter:
Wally Akinso |
Sound Bite:
Dr. Rober Sorensen |
Topic:
Alcohol Abuse |
| Institute(s): NIAAA |
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