Programmed feeding as a model of chronic alcoholism in the rat.

Programmed-feeding polydipsia results in a reliable model of chronic alcoholism in the rat. High oral ethanol comsumption and a predictable withdrawal reaction associated with audiogenic seizures are produced. The maintenance of high blood ethanol levels for three weeks in 18 male Charles River rats was associated with audiogenic seizures after 6 or 8 hours of withdrawal. These chronic alcoholic rats had enhanced blood clearance of ethanol. The cerebral cortical crude mitochondrial fraction showed a decrease in total and magnesium-dependent adenosine triphosphatase activity in alcoholic and control (water-fed) rats compared with normal rats.