Induction of a high alcohol consumption in rats and mice: Role of opioid receptors in rats and mice

Alcohol dependence continues to be an important health concern and animal models are critical to furthering our understanding of this complex disease. A hallmark feature of alcoholism is a significant increase in alcohol drinking over time. While several different animal models of excessive alcohol (ethanol) drinking exist for mice and rats, a growing number of laboratories are using a model that combines chronic ethanol exposure procedures with voluntary ethanol drinking with mice as experimental subjects. In the last years several experimental evidences have shown an involvement of opioid system in alcoholism.