We found that the behavioral strategies with the greatest likelihood of supporting long-term abstinence are those that are carried out in drug addicts' natural setting(s) and while drug is readily available. Further, the behavioral strategies that may be most successful in supporting abstinence in humans are those that employ both positive consequences for abstinent related behavior and negative consequences for continued drug seeking or taking. Moreover, the animal models of abstinence and relapse that more closely represent the factors that support long-term abstinence in humans are those that limit their use of extinction or forced abstinence and present negative consequences for drug seeking and taking.

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The implementation of negative consequences for drug seeking can result in its cessation just as they might in human addicts. Similarly, exposure to drug cues can lead to resumption of drug seeking. This model may be useful for studying the mechanisms underlying abstinence and relapse and for developing strategies to prevent relapse.

Two studies of variables affecting voluntary ethanol consumption by adolescent male and female rats are reported. Sprague-Dawley (SD) and spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs) were compared in Experiment 1. Starting on postnatal day 30 all had 24-hr access to 2%, then 4%, and then 6% ethanol, followed by 1-hr access to the 6% until intake stabilized. During the 1-hr access SHR females consumed more ethanol than all other groups. In Experiment 2 the same procedure was used to compare SD groups prenatally exposed to nicotine, with controls. Nicotine-exposed females consumed more ethanol during 1-hr access than both nicotine-exposed and control males; but after using water intake as a covariate, the differences were not significant. These data show that deprivation conditions need to be considered when generalizing the results of voluntary consumption studies, and that estrogens may be a modulator of addictive behavior.

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