Age features of the correction of alcohol motivation and voluntary alcohol consumption by intranasal administration of dehydroepiandrosterone under long-term preventive alcoholization (experimental study)

Abstract

We studied the effect of exogenous DHEA on the severity of alcohol motivation in animals of mature and adolescent-pubertal periods of ontogenesis using a model of voluntary ad libitum consumption of ethanol with determination of its level and preference index in a 2-bottle test. Course intranasal administration of DHEA under conditions of long-term preventive alcoholization, has a normalizing effect on emotional-motor activity and weakens anxiety-phobic reactions, which leads to the predominance of the sociocentric type in the structure of zoosocial behavior of animals. At the same time, there is a significant (by 74 %, p ≤ 0.001) decrease in the ethanol preference index in the situation of alcohol free choice, which reflects the suppression of alcohol motivation in mature adult male rats. Such effects of DHEA may indicate its certain therapeutic potential under psychoemotional disorders due to long-term alcohol consumption on the background of age-related peripheral neurosteroid hormone deficiency. In comparison, there were no found such properties during puberty, which is characterized by the highest intensity of endogenous DHEA production. Key words: periods of ontogenesis, disorders due to ethanol consumption, zoosocial behavior, intranasal administration of DHEA, correction of alcohol motivation