Alcohol Self-Administration

This chapter provides an exhaustive overview of the current repertoire of animal models for alcoholism research. The chapter covers behavioral procedures modeling different stages of the alcohol addiction cycle, including strategies for investigating ethanol reinforcement, ethanol dependence, binge drinking, ethanol craving, and susceptibility to relapse. Moreover, the description and evaluation of the utility of these models is presented within a historical context, as well as an assessment of specific needs for future model development. The chapter emphasizes that the primary objective of contemporary research on alcohol abuse and addiction is to explain the processes that compel some but not other individuals to drink excessively, the identification of brain mechanisms that support the acute reinforcing actions of alcohol in nondependent subjects, and abnormalities in these mechanisms that are responsible for the development of dependence and the compulsive character of ethanol seeking and use in alcohol-addicted individuals. With respect to the development and successful implementation of valid animal models of self-administration and addiction, a number of issues must be considered in the case of alcohol due to the fact that (a) voluntary alcohol consumption in animals is generally low, except in animals that have been genetically selected for high spontaneous ethanol preference, and (b) that the conditions that make excessive alcohol consumption a reinforcing event in some subjects and not others are complex because they involve interactions among genetic, psychosocial-environmental, and neurobiological factors. Despite these challenges, a wide array of animal models is available that permits investigation of behaviors directed at obtaining access to and consuming alcohol as well as the identification of neurobiological, genetic, environmental, and motivational factors regulating these behaviors in both the nondependent and dependent states. These models also are instrumental for identifying pharmacological treatment targets for intervention at different stages of the addiction cycle and as preclinical tools for evaluating the efficacy of potential medications for the treatment of excessive alcohol use and the prevention of alcohol craving and relapse.