A phenomenological exploration of relationship effort in emerging adult cyclical dating relationships

Doctor of PhilosophyFamily Studies and Human ServicesJared R. AndersonCyclical romantic relationships—those characterized by breaking up and getting back together or having on/off periods—are a frequent phenomenon in the emerging adult population. These dating relationships maintain some distinctions from other more stable relationships, including the ways that partners strive to sustain relationship health. The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative inquiry was to increase in-depth understanding of how emerging adult dating partners’ relationship effort affects relationship transitions within cyclical dating relationships. Ten heterosexual emerging adult couples (10 men, 10 women) currently in cyclical dating relationships were interviewed about their experiences with relationship effort and maintenance. Participant interviews were analyzed according to the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) method. Specific themes emerged from the data, focusing on how perceived individual effort in the relationship, perceived partner effort in the relationship, and specific maintenance behaviors couples used to sustain relational health affected couple decisions about relationship transitioning. Implications regarding relationship education and clinical intervention among cyclical emerging adult couples are discussed. Future research could focus on continued expansion of understanding when in relationship history cyclical patterns begin, and how partners navigate transitions when both perceive reduced relationship effort

Persistent adaptation by chronic alcohol is facilitated by neuroimmune activation linked to stress and CRF

This review updates the conceptual basis for the association of alcohol abuse with an insidious adaptation that facilitates negative affect during withdrawal from chronic intermittent alcohol (CIA) exposure – a change that later supports sensitization of stress-induced anxiety following alcohol abstinence. The finding that a CRF1-receptor antagonist (CRF1RA) minimized CIA withdrawal-induced negative affect supported an association of alcohol withdrawal with a stress mechanism. The finding that repeated stresses or multiple CRF injections into selected brain sites prior to a single 5-day chronic alcohol (CA) exposure induced anxiety during withdrawal provided critical support for a linkage of CIA withdrawal with stress. The determination that CRF1RA injection into positive CRF-sensitive brain sites prevented CIA withdrawal-induced anxiety provided support that neural path integration maintains the persistent CIA adaptation. Based upon reports that stress increases neuroimmune function, an effort was undertaken to test whether cytokines would support the adaptation induced by stress/CA exposure. Twenty-four hours after withdrawal from CIA, cytokine mRNAs were found to be increased in cortex as well as other sites in brain. Further, repeated cytokine injections into previously identified brain sites substituted for stress and CRF induction of anxiety during CA withdrawal. Discovery that a CRF1RA prevented the brain cytokine mRNA increase induced by CA withdrawal provided critical evidence for CRF involvement in this neuroimmune induction after CA withdrawal. However, the CRF1RA did not block the stress increase in cytokine mRNA increases in controls. The latter data supported the hypothesis that distinct mechanisms linked to stress and CA withdrawal can support common neuroimmune functions within a brain site. As evidence evolves concerning neural involvement in brain neuroimmune function, a better understanding of the progressive adaptation associated with CIA exposure will advance new knowledge that could possibly lead to strategies to combat alcohol abuse

Age related differences in anxiety-like behavior and amygdalar CCL2 responsiveness to stress following alcohol withdrawal

Behavioral and neuroimmune vulnerability to withdrawal from chronic alcohol varies with age. The relation of anxiety-like behavior to amygdalar CCL2 responses following stress after withdrawal from chronic intermittent alcohol (CIA) was investigated in adolescent and adult rats

Drug Challenges Reveal Differences in Mediation of Stress Facilitation of Voluntary Alcohol Drinking and Withdrawal-Induced Anxiety in Alcohol-Preferring P Rats

There is controversy over whether exposure to stress precipitates relapse and/or increases alcohol (ethanol) intake. Our laboratory has demonstrated that repeated stress prior to withdrawal from a brief forced exposure to alcohol results in withdrawal-induced anxiety-like behavior. Because anxiety is often regarded as a precipitating factor in relapsing alcoholics, we decided to examine the consequences of stressing alcohol-preferring P rats on both voluntary alcohol drinking and withdrawal-induced anxiety

Accentuated Decrease in Social Interaction in Rats Subjected to Repeated Ethanol Withdrawals

Previous work has shown that repeated withdrawals from chronic ethanol exposure can kindle seizures in rodents. In this article, the effects of a three-cycle model of ethanol exposure and withdrawal on the social interaction test of anxiety are summarized

Withdrawal from Chronic Alcohol Induces a Unique CCL2 mRNA Increase in Adolescent But Not Adult Brain-Relationship to Blood Alcohol Levels and Seizures

The role of neuroimmune activation in withdrawal from chronic alcohol (ethanol) has been established in both adolescent and adult models, but direct comparisons across age are sparse. Studies need to elucidate age-dependent neuroimmune effects of alcohol and to focus research attention on age-dependent mechanisms and outcomes

Baclofen Blocks Expression and Sensitization of Anxiety-Like Behavior in an Animal Model of Repeated Stress and Ethanol Withdrawal

Repeated exposures to forced ethanol diets (EDs) or restraint stress sensitize anxiety-like behavior during a future ethanol withdrawal. The present investigation assessed whether pretreatment of rats with agents targeting receptor systems thought to be important in treating relapse in alcoholic patients would prevent sensitization of anxiety-like behavior

Modulation of Ethanol Withdrawal???Induced Anxiety-Like Behavior During Later Withdrawals by Treatment of Early Withdrawals With Benzodiazepine/??-Aminobutyric Acid Ligands

Anxiety states, including those arising during acute or protracted withdrawal periods, may be precipitating factors in alcoholic relapse. Given the cyclical nature of ethanol withdrawal associated with repeated cycles of ethanol intake and abstinence in a pattern that often spans years, meaningful attempts to model ethanol withdrawal–associated anxiety should incorporate cycled ethanol treatments. The studies reported herein examined the effects of γ-aminobutyric acid–modulating drugs on social interaction behavior—an established model of anxiety—in rats exposed to repeated cycles of ethanol treatment and withdrawal

Similar anxiety-like responses in male and female rats exposed to repeated withdrawals from ethanol

Previous research indicated that male rats exhibited anxiety-like behavior following withdrawal from chronic ethanol exposure. This behavior, as well as other symptoms of withdrawal such as seizure susceptibility, may be sensitized in male rats repeatedly withdrawn from chronic ethanol exposure. Because there are sex differences in some alcohol effects, the present study explored whether male and female rats would respond differently to a course of repeated ethanol withdrawals. Similarly aged male and female rats were exposed to a control liquid diet or a diet containing ethanol (7% w/v). Ethanol-exposed rats had only one 5-day cycle of exposure or three cycles, with 2 days of control diet (CD) between cycles. At 5 h after the final ethanol was removed, the rats were placed as same-sexed pairs in the social interaction test; approximately half of the rats were tested later in the elevated plus maze. Rats withdrawn from ethanol after three cycles exhibited reduced the time spent in social interaction and general activity in the social interaction test and reduced the open and closed arm entries in the elevated plus maze. There were no sex differences in these effects. However, male rats exhibited a small anxiety-like response after one cycle of 5 days’ exposure to ethanol and female rats did not. Thus, there are no sex differences in the three-cycle multiple-withdrawal paradigm, but there may be differences after briefer exposures

Conceptual framework for the etiology of alcoholism: a ?kindling?/stress hypothesis

The rationale for proposing the “kindling”/stress hypothesis is to provide a conceptual basis for the insidious development and maintenance of alcohol abuse