Collectively, our data support the hypothesis that depression susceptibility promotes addiction‐like behaviors in the male rat. Yet, women diagnosed with major depression are in sevenfold risk of developing alcoholism when compared with men, and vice versa, female alcoholics are in approximately 30% higher risk of comorbid depression vs their male counterparts.48, 53 Together, these facts illustrate the imperative need to examine alcohol‐related effects of SDPS in a female population. It is challenging to apply a model that so heavily relies on hierarchy and dominance‐submission dynamics in females; however, this is feasible by using lactating females as aggressors.54 In fact, social defeat in females has been shown to precipitate altered response to cocaine;55 thus, it would be worthwhile to study alcohol‐related effects of SDPS in a female population.
