Early life stress is a risk factor for excessive alcohol drinking and impulsivity in adults and is mediated via a CRF/GABA(A) mechanism.

AbstractChildhood stress and trauma are associated with substance use disorders in adulthood, but the neurological changes that confer increased vulnerability are largely unknown. In this study, maternal separation (MS) stress, restricted to the pre-weaning period, was used as a model to study mechanisms of protracted effects of childhood stress/traumatic experiences on binge drinking and impulsivity. Using an operant self-administration model of binge drinking and a delay discounting assay to measure impulsive-like behavior, we report that early life stress due to MS facilitated acquisition of binge drinking and impulsivity during adulthood in rats. Previous studies have shown heightened levels of corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) after MS, and here, we add that MS increased expression levels of GABAA α2 subunit in central stress circuits. To investigate the precise role of these circuits in regulating impulsivity and binge drinking, the CRF1 receptor antagonist antalarmin and the novel GABAA α2 subun...