During the week prior to onset of the first alcohol deprivation, baseline alcohol and water intake were calculated for each rat over 5 consecutive days and the rats were ranked in descending order in terms of average daily alcohol consumption. Rats were assigned to drug dose groups (0.0, 0.5, 1.0, or 2.0 mg/kg BW) in a manner that ensured that the groups did not differ in baseline alcohol intake prior to VAR administration as previously described (Froehlich et al., 2013a, b, 2016, 2017).
