Differential involvement of anxiety and novelty preference levels on oral ethanol consumption in rats.

Rationale: Drug addiction is defined as a recurring cycle of intoxication, abstinence and relapse. The behavioural trait of novelty seeking is frequently observed in alcohol abusers. Moreover, converging evidence indicates that anxious individuals are also predisposed to alcohol abuse.

Comparison of the deleterious effects of binge drinking-like alcohol exposure in adolescent and adult mice.

A major cause of alcohol toxicity is the production of reactive oxygen species generated during ethanol metabolism. The aim of this study was to compare the effect of binge drinking-like alcohol exposure on a panel of genes implicated in oxidative mechanisms in adolescent and adult mice. In adolescent animals, alcohol decreased the expression of genes involved in the repair and protection of oxidative DNA damage such as atr, gpx7, or nudt15 and increased the expression of proapoptotic genes such as casp3.

Anxiety increases the place conditioning induced by cocaine in rats.

Some clinical studies have shown that anxiety disorders are often associated with drug dependence, although it remains unclear whether these disorders are primary or secondary to drug abuse. We have investigated whether anxiety may be a factor that predisposes to cocaine use. From an outbred Wistar strain, we have selected male rats regarded as anxious or non-anxious on the basis of their scores on two behavioural tests of unconditioned anxiety, the elevated plus-maze and the light/dark box test.

Locomotor effects of morphine or alcohol in mice after a repeated treatment with the cannabinoid agonist HU 210.

The consequences of the consumption of cannabinoids with other drugs of abuse are of particular medical relevance. Several studies investigated the ability of cannabinoids to induce a locomotor cross-sensitization to other addictive drugs, but results remain inconsistent. Therefore, we investigated in mice the consequences of a repeated treatment with the cannabinoid agonist HU 210 on motor effects of morphine or alcohol.