Early Stress & Alcoholism: Functional Analyses in Brain

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Alcoholism is a serious public health problem with widespread costs to individuals and to the larger community. One in 13 adults in the United States is alcohol dependent or has alcohol-related problems. A major risk factor for adult alcoholism is stress and trauma during childhood. In 2003, the PI began an NIAAA-funded study entitled, Early Stress & Alcoholism: Neurobiological Analysis. This project studies the interaction of childhood stress and ethanol by comparing mother-reared to nursery-reared rhesus monkeys. It will study: 1) drinking behavior, 2) endocrine status, 3) the serotonin transporter and receptors, and 4) gene expression. With this application we are requesting additional funding to expand significantly our ability to study this unique experimental population. The experiments proposed here will examine how childhood stress and alcohol, both alone and in combination with each other, functionally alter serotonin modulation of synaptic transmission and receptor-function. This will add data complimentary to the anatomical studies supported by the first grant. The proposed studies will also examine alterations in glutamate and GABAA receptors, also complimenting the first grant. These experiments represent a one- time scientific opportunity to produce functional data about serotonin that cannot be gathered elsewhere. They will generate fundamental descriptive information about the distribution of important transmitter systems that have only been incompletely mapped in primates, and will be the first systematic study of key neurotransmitter systems in the brains of nursery-reared monkeys. This proposal also moves us towards a model of interdisciplinary science that promises not only increased efficiency, but also richer opportunities for data integration across many levels of analysis in individual animals. Relevance to Public Health: Adults who, in childhood, experience traumatic events like separation from their parents, are at increased risk for alcohol abuse and alcoholism. The causes for this increased risk are unknown. The proposed studies are designed to directly address the mechanisms by which childhood stress leads to adult alcoholism by studying the drinking behavior and brain structure and function of animals that experienced maternal separation. This information from this project can have important influences on how traumatized children may be protected from later substance abuse.