The Effect Of Socialization And Isolation On Binge Drinking In C57 Mice

Dopamine D3 receptor antagonists have been shown to significantly decrease alcoholism related to stress, but stress is not the only factor contributing to alcoholism. Many people binge drink because of social isolation or facilitation and the area of the brain that governs social drinking may be different from the area controlling stress drinking. Because of this, we do not know if a D3 antagonist will help a social drinker. To demonstrate the difference between social drinking and stress drinking, a Drinking in the Dark paradigm was used with 30 female C57 mice. The mice were split into three groups of 10. The first group lived in cages alone for two weeks to acclimate to the isolation before drinking. They served as a baseline to measure against. The second group lived in cages of two at all times, even when drinking. The third group lived in cages of two until 5 pm the day before the drinking paradigm so that they would still show the impact of isolation. In general there does not seem to be a difference between the amount of alcohol consumed by the social mice and the recently isolated mice. In the future, these results can be used to determine whether or not a D3 antagonist would help those who binge drink due to social facilitation