Alcohol, psychomotor-stimulants and behaviour: methodological considerations in preclinical models of early-life...

In order to assess the risk associated with early-life stress, there has been an increase in the amount of preclinical studies investigating early-life stress. There are many challenges associated with investigating early-life stress in animal models and ensuring that such models are appropriate and clinically relevant.

The purpose of this review is to highlight the methodological considerations in the design of preclinical studies investigating the effects of early-life stress on alcohol and psychomotor-stimulant intake and behaviour.

The protocols employed for exploring early-life stress were investigated and summarised. Experimental variables include animals, stress models, and endpoints employed.

The findings in this paper suggest that there is little consistency among these studies and so the interpretation of these results may not be as clinically relevant as previously thought.

The standardisation of these simple stress procedures means that results will be more comparable between studies and that results generated will give us a more robust understanding of what can and may be happening in the human and veterinary clinic.