Abstract

Alcoholism is the third leading preventable cause of death in the United States. While there are certain medications to help treat alcoholism, there are none that pacify depressive symptoms experienced following long-term withdrawal. This study seeks to understand why individuals experience depression during alcohol withdrawal, which often leads to relapse. In our experiment, we examined the ability of the CRF2 receptor to alleviate depressive-like behaviors following long-term withdrawal from alcohol by investigating the ability of Urocortin 3 (Ucn 3), a neuropeptide that selectively activates CRF2 receptors, to reverse immobility in the forced swim test, an animal model of depression. We predict that the animals injected with the Ucn 3 will display less immobility compared to rats that are injected with the control solution. After analyzing our results, we hope to find a treatment for humans experiencing depression following long-term alcohol withdrawal.