1990), schedule-induced polydipsia (Meisch, 1976), scheduled availability (Holloway et al., 1984), sucrose-fading (Samson, 1986) and forced induction of dependence (Deutsch and Eisner, 1977; Roberts et al., 2000) are generally required to induce appreciable levels of ethanol intake or self-administration which result in pharmacologically relevant BACs in heterogeneous stock rats. This, of course, introduces the influence of other factors (e.g., taste, stress, etc.) which can complicate the interpretation of results. Nevertheless, certain criteria for an animal model of alcoholism have been put forth (Cicero, 1979; Lester and Freed, 1973). Briefly, these criteria are 1) the animal should readily consume ethanol; 2) the amount of ethanol consumed should result in pharmacologically relevant blood ethanol levels; 3) ethanol should be consumed for its post-ingestive pharmacological effects, and not strictly for its caloric value or taste; 4) ethanol should be reinforcing, in other words, the animals must be willing to work for ethanol; 5) chronic ethanol consumption should lead to the expression of metabolic and functional tolerance; and 6) chronic consumption of ethanol should lead to dependence, as indicated by withdrawal symptoms after access to ethanol is terminated. A 7th criterion has been proposed (McBride and Li, 1998), such that an animal model of
