Environmental enrichment decreases chronic psychosocial stress-impaired extinction and reinstatement of ethanol conditioned place preference in C57BL/6 male mice

Abstract

Rationale During the last few decades, alcohol use disorders (AUD) have reached an epidemic prevalence, yet social influences on alcoholism have not been fully addressed. Several factors can modulate alcohol intake. On one hand, stress can reinforce ethanol-induced behaviors and be an important component in AUD and alcoholism. On the other hand, environmental enrich-ment (EE) has a neuroprotective role and prevents the development of excessive ethanol intake in rodents. However, studies showing the role of EE in chronic psychosocial stress-impaired ethanol-conditioned rewards are nonexistent. Aim The purpose of the current study is to explore the potential protective role of EE on extinction and reinstatement of ethanolconditioned place preference (EtOH-CPP) following chronic psychosocial stress. Methods In the first experiment and after the EtOH-CPP test, the mice were subjected to 15 days of chronic stress, then housed in a standard (SE) or enriched environment (EE) while EtOH-CPP extinction was achieved by repeated exposure to the CPP chambers without ethanol injection. In the second experiment and after the EtOH-CPP test, extinction was achieved as described above. Mice were then exposed to chronic stress for 2 weeks before being housed in a SE or EE. EtOH-CPP reinstatement was induced by a single exposure to the conditioning chambers. Results As expected, stress exposure increased anxiety-like behavior and reduced weight gain. More importantly, we found that EE significantly shortened chronic stress-delayed extinction and decreased the reinstatement of EtOH-CPP. Conclusion These results support the hypothesis that EE reduces the impact of alcohol-associated environmental stimuli, and hence it may be a general intervention for reducing cue-elicited craving and relapse in humans.

A systematic review of neural, cognitive, and clinical studies of anger and aggression

“…They suggested that like anxiety, anger can be triggered by some stimuli in the environment, and cue exposure therapy can teach patients with anger-related disorders to reduce their anger behaviours in relation to these triggers. Cue exposure therapy is an established treatment for anxiety disorders (Bahi & Dreyer, 2020 ; Javanbakht, 2018 ; Loucks et al, 2019 ; Nonkes et al, 2012 ; Stenmark et al, 2013 ). Other studies have also shown that cue exposure therapy can effectively decrease anger feelings (Stapleton et al, 2006 ).…”

Repeated ethanol exposure following avoidance conditioning impairs avoidance extinction and modifies conditioning‐associated prefrontal dendritic changes in a mouse model of post‐traumatic stress disorder

“…This mouse finding is in accordance with other recent rodent data, showing that pronounced effects of ethanol characterise animals expressing maladaptive behavioural responses to stress. These effects were observed either with the CPP paradigm (Bahi & Dreyer, 2014; Bahi & Dreyer, 2020; Macedo et al, 2018; Yu et al, 2016), with the two‐bottle free choice paradigm (Cannady et al, 2021; Manjoch et al, 2016; Meyer et al, 2013) or with the self‐administration paradigm (Barchiesi et al, 2021; Edwards et al, 2013; Makhijani et al, 2021). Nevertheless, studies with other drugs (such as cocaine and methamphetamine) have shown that stress does not necessarily lead to potentiate the effect of the drug or increase its consumption (e.g., cocaine: Enman et al, 2015; Hadad et al, 2016; Lguensat et al, 2021; methamphetamine: Eagle & Perrine, 2013).…”

Ethanol intake in male mice exposed to social defeat: Environmental enrichment potentiates resilience

“… Bahi (2017) observed that the increased anxiety-like behavior, the increase in ethanol intake and the appearance of ethanol-induced CPP were buffered by exposure to EE conditions after the stress experience. In a more recent study, EE also proved to counteract social stress effects favoring the extinction of memories associated with ethanol and reducing reinstatement of drug seeking ( Bahi and Dreyer, 2020 ).…”