# The Effect of Vicarious Exposure to Social Defeat on Alcohol Intake

> **NIH NIH R03** · UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA · 2020 · $75,000

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
 Comorbid expression of alcoholism and depression is extremely common. Thus, it is critical to
determine how the neurobiological components of these conditions overlap to advance our understanding of
the common risk factors and mechanisms that influence this comorbidity. The information derived from these
investigations helps to contribute to the development of therapeutics that can be used to target specific
populations of alcoholic patients. Recently, our group has described a bidirectional relationship between
alcohol exposure and depression-like behavior using the social defeat stress (SDS) paradigm, a major
preclinical model of depression. In this model, male mice are physically defeated by a larger conspecific and
then housed on the other side of a transparent divider. When exposed chronically to this stressor, mice will
exhibit behavioral phenotypes that are thought to be indicative of depressive-like behavior, including anhedonia
and social withdrawal. One drawback of the SDS model is that it only works effectively in male subjects due to
sex differences in aggressive behavior in mice. The objective of the current proposal is to establish a model in
our laboratory that will allow us to assess the relationship between alcohol seeking and depressive-like
behavior in both female and male subjects. To achieve this objective, we will utilize a recently developed model
where a test subject observes the social defeat of another animal, called vicarious defeat stress (VDS). VDS
involves observation of social defeat sessions from a compartment neighboring where the defeat is taking
place. It was recently published that this model produces similar depressive-like phenotypes in both male and
female mice. In the proposed studies, we will use the VDS protocol to investigate the relationship between
depression-like behavior and alcohol consumption in male and female mice. Furthermore, we will determine if
chronic alcohol administration alters the sensitivity to subsequent VDS exposure. These studies will advance
our current knowledge of the mechanisms underlying comorbid depression and alcoholism in both males and
females. The results obtained from this proposal will provide an experimental foundation that can be used for
future projects assessing the mechanisms underlying these processes and for the identification of promising
therapeutic targets.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9745206
- **Project number:** 1R03AA027009-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA
- **Principal Investigator:** JESSE R SCHANK
- **Activity code:** R03 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $75,000
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-06-05 → 2022-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9745206

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9745206, The Effect of Vicarious Exposure to Social Defeat on Alcohol Intake (1R03AA027009-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9745206. Licensed CC0.

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