Quantification of physiological and behavioral measures of alcohol withdrawal in long-sleep and short-sleep mice

A quantitative, multidimensional animal model of the alcohol withdrawal syndrome is desirable for investigating individual differences in susceptibility to alcohol dependence. Following exposure to control or ethanol diets for 7 or 14 days, we measured respiration rates, body temperature, acoustic startle responses, and heart rates in Long-Sleep (LS) and Short-Sleep (SS) mice to determine how initial alcohol sensitivity influences dependence liability. SS mice consumed a greater amount of ethanol diet and exhibited a more severe withdrawal syndrome than LS mice. Withdrawal severity resulted from an interaction of genotype with duration of ethanol exposure. The abstinence syndrome was generally characterized by depressed behavioral and physiological functioning for both mouse lines. Initial alcohol sensitivity influenced the rate of alcohol increase in the blood during dependence induction which, in turn, influenced withdrawal severity. This model incorporates several discriminative measures that independently assess withdrawal reactions and provides a useful animal model of alcohol withdrawal.