After completion of the 2-day clonidine treatment regimen, rats continued to receive 2-h (1100–1300 h) daily access to alcohol 5 days/week for 3 weeks prior to initiating 5 days of clonidine treatment. To reduce the stress associated with IP drug administration, all rats were again handled as if they were going to receive an IP injection for 5 days prior to treatment and were given an IP injection of vehicle on the day preceding onset of 5 days of drug treatment. Average daily alcohol and water intakes were determined in the week preceding drug treatment and the rats were rank ordered, based on alcohol intake, and re-assigned to treatment groups as previously described. Clonidine, in doses of 10, 20, 40, or 80 µg/kg BW, or an equivalent volume of vehicle, was administered 30 min prior to the daily 2-h alcohol access period on each of 5 consecutive days.
