PRECLINICAL STUDY: Conditioned cues and yohimbine induce reinstatement of beer and near‐beer seeking in Long‐Evans rats

Abstract

Alcohol use disorders (AUDs) impact millions of individuals, yet there are few effective treatments. One major problem in treating AUDs is the high rate of relapse to drinking often induced by stress and/or anxiety states. Although beer accounts for over 81% of all alcohol consumed in hazardous amounts in the United States, the use of beer in pre-clinical research has been limited. It has been shown that rats will self-administer beer and near-beer using a standard operant self-administration paradigm; however, there have been few studies examining reinstatement of beer and near-beer seeking. We have determined that reward-associated cues and/or yohimbine will induce reinstatement of beer and near-beer seeking in a similar manner to that seen for 10% ethanol and sucrose seeking using standard operant self-administration and reinstatement paradigms. We show that rats will self-administer beer, near-beer and 4.5% ethanol using an operant self-administration paradigm and both conditioned cues, and yohimbine will induce reinstatement of beer, near-beer and 4.5% ethanol seeking in previously extinguished animals. This demonstrates that both environmental cues and yohimbine-stress will reinstate beer and near-beer seeking, as previously shown for both 10% ethanol and sucrose seeking.