The effect of alcohol administration on social behavior of rats with experimental schizophrenia

Abstract

Experimental animal modeling of schizophrenia and alcoholism allows understanding the mechanisms of comorbid pathology formation. The aim was to investigate the effect of ethanol administration on social relations in rats with experimental schizophrenia.

The study was carried out on 30 Wistar adult male rats aged. After 2 weeks isolation rat social ranks were determined. Alcohol preference was evaluated in the two-bottle test. Schizophrenia was modeled by administering to rats (n = 15) dopamine precursor levodopa-carbidopa (LC) during 5 days each month in four months experiment. The control animals (n = 15) received water. All animals were subjected to intermittent alcoholization throughout the experiment after the introduction of the LC. The behavioral parameters evaluated in the “open field” and “despair” tests.

It was found out that the experimental rats who received alcohol did not differ in the number of interactions compared to the rats who received only alcohol. In the rats with experimental schizophrenia a significantly higher social interactions were observed compared to the control group. This is consistent with the results of the clinical studies, which have shown that patients often drink alcohol to relieve anxiety and tension. The two-bottle test has shown the difference between the experimental and control groups only in the first week of the experiment. Apparently, this can be explained by the prolonged isolation. In the despair test, before the alcoholization, the rats with experimental schizophrenia were completely immobilized, compared to the controls. After alcoholization the differences in the despair test were not observed.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.