Oakland University
Thursday, April 9, 2009

Alcohol Abuse is Studied Using an Animal Model

Alcohol abuse is a devastating disease, and many researchers perform experiments using animal models to try and find ways to prevent or treat it. But sometimes the details of an experiment are crucial. For instance, Assistant Professor Keith Williams, of the Department of Psychology, published a paper  in the March 2009 issue of the journal Alcohol concluding that the "Potency of Naltrexone to Reduce Ethanol Self-Administration in Rats is Greater for Subcutaneous Versus Intraperitoneal Injection" (Volume 43, Pages 119-126). His abstract clearly states the goals and conclusions of his study:

"The opioid antagonist naltrexone (NTX) is used to treat alcohol dependence and may reduce alcohol consumption by selectively blocking opioid receptors. In rat experiments, discrepancy exists across studies regarding the potency of NTX to reduce ethanol consumption. One cause of this discrepancy may be the use of different routes of NTX administration (e.g., intraperitoneal vs. subcutaneous). The purpose of this study was to directly compare the effects of intraperitoneal and subcutaneous injections of NTX on ethanol self-administration... Naltrexone significantly reduced ethanol self-administration, and NTX was more potent when administered via subcutaneous injection versus intraperitoneal injection... These findings suggest that researchers should carefully consider the route of NTX administration when discussing potency and selectivity of NTX's effects on ethanol-related behaviors in rats."

Alcohol abuse is a devastating disease, and many researchers perform experiments using animal models to try and find ways to prevent or treat it. But sometimes the details of an experiment are crucial.

Created by Brad Roth (roth@oakland.edu) on Thursday, April 9, 2009
Modified by Brad Roth (roth@oakland.edu) on Thursday, April 9, 2009
Article Start Date: Thursday, April 9, 2009