Zebrafish go cold turkey

What is it about?

One of the most dramatic consequences of drug and alcohol abuse is withdrawal syndrome, and understanding its symptoms necessitates good animal models. We show that in adult zebrafish alcohol withdrawal produces increased anxiety-like behavior and makes it easier for animals to enter a seizure-like state. We also show that withdrawal decreases the activity of an enzyme called catalase in the zebrafish brain, an effect that could explain why withdrawal is sometimes associated with free radicals and neuronal death.

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Why is it important?

We used a statistical technique called meta-analysis to sort everything that was published on alcohol withdrawal in this species, resolving an important issue on the zebrafish literature, because increased anxiety is not always observed in this species after withdrawal. This helped us to develop a better model. We also showed, for the first time, that withdrawal increases seizure susceptibility, a symptom that is observed in humans. This could help to discover potential treatments for this debilitating condition.