Alcoholism remains a significant public health concern, both in terms of societal cost and as a contributing factor in medical diseases and death. Alcohol exposure at an early age and binge-type drinking have been demonstrated to be predictive of alcohol abuse or alcohol dependence later in life and different drinking patterns have been used to classify individuals into different typologies and/or drinking profiles. Research indicates that the effectiveness of certain pharmacotherapies is influenced by where an individual falls on these classification continuums. Thus, in order to effectively evaluate pharmacotherapies in an animal model, the proposed model should allow for evaluating the effects of (a) early alcohol exposure and (b) different drinking patterns or endpoints including continuous access, limited access, binge-like drinking and relapse.
