Psychosocial stress alters ethanol's effect on open field behaviors

Psychosocial stress, including social rank status, has been shown to alter spontaneously occurring behaviors in rodents as well as the behavioral effects of drugs of abuse. In this study, rats were repeatedly evaluated in a modified open field following: their initial exposure, and after intraperitoneal injections of saline and 0.75 g/kg ethanol (EtOH). All subjects were first tested while under single housing conditions, then again following 35 days of differential housing (singly or 3 rats/cage) with social status determined by scoring agonistic behavior at triad formation. The data suggest that (1) future subordinate rats differed with respect to specific aspects of behavior displayed in a ‘novel’ open field arena, (2) future subordinate rats were more emotional since they showed greater “anxiety-like” behavior and less exploratory behavior, (3) subordinate rats were more impaired by the saline injection stress, (4) subordinate rats were more sensitive to the depressant effects of EtOH, (5) grooming behavior did not show habituation, in contrast to the other behaviors, but showed sensitization on the second test. Overall, subordinate rats may have differed from their cage mates in innate anxiety, and this may underlie their distinct response to both stressors and EtOH. Furthermore, while EtOH had mostly stimulant effects in naive rats, psychosocial stress and/or repeated testing resulted in enhancement of EtOH's depressant effects.