Does chronic ethanol intake confer full cross-tolerance to chlordiazepoxide?

Four behavioral tests, namely, hypothermia, horizontal dowel, runway and head-dipping, were used to assess tolerance to ethanol and cross-tolerance to chlordiazepoxide (CDP) in mice chronically treated with an ethanol diet for 15 days. Mice were tested on day 3 of ethanol withdrawal, with some being retested on day 8. In terms of hypothermia and the horizontal dowel test, ethanol tolerance conferred full cross-tolerance to CDP, but the conclusion based on results of the latter test may be equivocal. Partial cross-tolerance to CDP was observed in the runway test, while no cross-tolerance to CDP was detected in the head-dipping test. For these latter two tests ethanol tolerance was present in the mice. Thus, the degree of equivalence between tolerance to ethanol and cross-tolerance to CDP in ethanol-dependent mice varied with the behavioral tests to assess tolerance. Possible mechanisms are discussed.