Nutrition and Health Research

Stressed-out rats drink more alcohol

A new study from University of Pennsylvania has found that rats exposed to stress had a weakened alcohol-induced dopamine response and voluntarily drank more alcohol compared to chilled out (or rats not deliberately exposed to stress). The researchers pinpointing that changes in the rats’ brain reward system (the ventral tegmental area) reduced dopamine signalling to alcohol when stressed. According to the researchers, after exposure to stress, specific brain nerve cells can actually flip their physiology from being normally inhibitory to become excitatory, altering the rats’ response to alcohol, making them consume more and more. (Research reference: Ostroumov et al, 2016, Neuron, DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2016.09.029).