Dr. Andrew Craig: From the Bar to the Basic Lab: Exploring Relapse of Alcohol Seeking from a Translational Perspective

Abstract

Alternative-reinforcement based interventions for alcohol use disorder arrange nondrug incentives for abstinence. Despite the efficacy of these interventions, alcohol use may relapse or “resurge” when treatment is suspended. Laboratory models of resurgence have allowed researchers to identify variables that affect this form of relapse and potential methods for mitigating it. There’s just one problem: Laboratory work almost exclusively focuses on resurgence following extinction of target behavior, but abstinence from alcohol during intervention is voluntary. Patients may drink alcohol and forfeit therapeutic reinforcers at any time. In this talk, I will introduce data that demonstrate methods for studying voluntary abstinence from alcohol seeking, and resurgence following voluntary abstinence, in the laboratory. One method involves repeatedly giving rats choices between responding for alcohol or non-drug (food) reinforcers using a concurrent-chains procedure. The second involves delivering food alternative reinforcers contingently on abstinence from alcohol seeking. Both procedures result in elimination of alcohol seeking without the need to arrange extinction as is typical in laboratory analyses of relapse. Moreover, suspending non-drug reinforcers results in resurgence of alcohol seeking in both. These procedures may help us develop a better understanding of the variables that are associated with abstinence from, and relapse of, alcohol seeking in the natural environment.