Adolescent alcohol binge drinking and withdrawal: behavioural, brain GFAP-positive astrocytes and acute methamphetamine effects in adult female rats

Alcopop beverages are generally the first alcoholic beverage that young females drink which contain high levels of sugar and alcohol. The over-consumption of these drinks may encourage alcohol co-administration with methamphetamine (METH) impacting on drinking behaviour and glial function. The aims of this study were to evaluate the effect of adolescent binge alcohol exposure on consumption level, anxiety-like behaviour, cross-sensitization with METH and on astrocyte expression in reward related brain regions. Adolescent female Sprague-Dawley rats had daily 1-hour oral alcohol consumption of alcopop (ALCP; with sucrose) or ethanol-only (ETOH; without sucrose), transitioned from 5 to 15