Journal
ADDICTION BIOLOGY
Volume 26, Issue 5, Pages -Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/adb.13009
Keywords
alcohol use disorder; anxiety disorders; comorbidity; social defeat stress; vasopressin; witness stress
Categories
Funding
- Wallenberg Foundation [KAW 2018.0322]
- Region Ostergotland
- Stiftelsen psykiatriska forskningsfonden
- Swedish Research Council [2013-07434]
- Swedish Research Council [2013-07434] Funding Source: Swedish Research Council
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The comorbidity between alcohol use and anxiety disorders is associated with more severe symptoms and poorer treatment outcomes than either condition alone. Stress is well-known to be linked to the development of these disorders, with PTSD being a prototypic example. A rat model of social defeat and witness stress was used to study the shared mechanisms underlying stress-induced anxiety-like behavior and escalated alcohol self-administration, revealing novel insights into the molecular mechanisms of this comorbidity.
Comorbidity between alcohol use and anxiety disorders is associated with more severe symptoms and poorer treatment outcomes than either of the conditions alone. There is a well-known link between stress and the development of these disorders, with post-traumatic stress disorder as a prototypic example. Post-traumatic stress disorder can arise as a consequence of experiencing traumatic events firsthand and also after witnessing them. Here, we used a model of social defeat and witness stress in rats, to study shared mechanisms of stress-induced anxiety-like behavior and escalated alcohol self-administration. Similar to what is observed clinically, we found considerable individual differences in susceptibility and resilience to the stress. Both among defeated and witness rats, we found a subpopulation in which exposure was followed by emergence of increased anxiety-like behavior and escalation of alcohol self-administration. We then profiled gene expression in tissue from the amygdala, a key brain region in the regulation of stress, alcohol use, and anxiety disorders. When comparing comorbid and resilient socially defeated rats, we identified a strong upregulation of vasopressin and oxytocin, and this correlated positively with the magnitude of the alcohol self-administration and anxiety-like behavior. A similar trend was observed in comorbid witness rats. Together, our findings provide novel insights into molecular mechanisms underpinning the comorbidity of escalated alcohol self-administration and anxiety-like behavior.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available