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Effects Of Dietary Factors And Morphine Administration On Voluntary Alcohol Consumption And Dopamine Metabolism In Rats, Claudia Smithson

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

The effect of diet and dietary additives on voluntary alcohol consumption in male Sprague-Dawley rats was studied. Alcohol intake measured weekly and reported as ml of a 10% solution ingested per 100 grams body weight. A four week pre-experimental period was designed to determine individual tendencies to drink and thus to eliminate the high and low drinkers from the study. No difference was found in alcohol intake with either starch or sugar as the carbohydrate source; however, there was a greater weight gain ( p < .025) in those animals consuming sugar-based diets. Rats on poor-quality diets containing minimal amounts of vitamins and minerals continued to gradually increase alcohol consumption during the study. This diet, supplemented with coffee, caused the greatest significant increase in alcohol intake and the lowest weight gains. Addition of coffee to the diets significantly increased alcohol consumption (p< .005) but decreased growth rate (p < .0005) . However, when the poor quality diets were supplemented with vitamins and minerals, alcohol consumption was reduced by about 50% (p < .005) and weight gain was significantly increased (p < .0005).

The daily intraperitoneal administration of morphine sulfate significantly decreased alcohol intake (p < .02) and the per cent of total fluid consumed as alcohol (p < .02) but did not effect water consumption.

An attempt was …