This chronic relapsing disorder involves a cyclic behavioral pattern that is initially driven primarily by impulsive, reward-seeking that, overtime, transitions to compulsive alcohol/drug taking largely driven by behavior aimed at reducing negative affect and anxiety (Koob and Volkow, 2010, Koob and Volkow, 2016). The transition in some users in response to alcohol and/or drug use is mediated by neuroplastic changes in brain reward-, stress- and executive functioning systems (Kalivas and Volkow, 2005, Koob, 2008, Koob and Volkow, 2010, Koob and Volkow, 2016). Oxytocin may be beneficial in the treatment of alcohol and substance use disorders through modulation of adaptive processes associated with reward, tolerance, memory and stress responses (Lee et al., 2016). Convergent pathways within the mesocortiolimbic dopamine systems involved in the processing of motivationally relevant stimuli not only have important ramifications for social and maternal behaviors, but they also may have significant influence on the rewarding aspects of alcohol and other substances of abuse (Baskerville and Douglas, 2010, Burkett and Young, 2012). Oxytocin is also known to exert potent anti-stress and anxiolytic effects (Jurek et al., 2015, Peters et
