[Psychological stress and rewarding effect of alcohol]

It has long been postulated that an interaction between ethanol and stress may play an important role in the etiology of alcoholism. In the present review, we focused on an interaction between ethanol and stress in the mechanism of psychological dependence on ethanol. Ethanol with conditioned fear stress (CFS), but not without the stress, induced a significant place preference. These results suggest that psychological stress may play an important role in the rewarding effect of ethanol. It has been hypothesized that activation of the mesolimbic dopamine system mediated by the endogenous opioid system may be particularly important in the rewarding mechanism of ethanol. It appeared that mu- and delta-opioid receptors might play critical roles in the development of the rewarding effect of ethanol under the stress. Under psychological stress, the rewarding effect of ethanol through the activation of mu- and/or delta-opioid receptors was found to results the activation of dopamine D1 and/or D2 receptors. Additionally, a subtype of serotonin (5-HT) receptors, 5-HT3 receptor, was shown to be involved in the rewarding mechanism of ethanol through the activation of mu- and delta-opioid receptors. In conclusion, psychological stress may be an important factor in the development of the rewarding effect of ethanol and may potentiate the rewarding mechanism. 5-HT3 receptor, is likely to be involved in the rewarding mechanism of ethanol under stress. Dopamine D1 and D2 receptors may also be implicated in the rewarding mechanism of ethanol under stress.