Oxytocin Attenuates the Stress-Induced Reinstatement of Alcohol-Seeking in Male Rats: Role of the Central Amygdala

Factors such as stress and anxiety often contribute to alcohol-dependent behavior and can trigger a relapse of alcohol addiction and use. Therefore, it is important to investigate potential pharmacological interventions that may alleviate the influence of stress on addiction-related behaviors. Previous studies have demonstrated that the neuropeptide oxytocin has promising anxiolytic potential in mammals and may offer a pharmacological target to diminish the emotional impact on reinstatement of alcohol-seeking. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of oxytocin on stress-induced alcohol relapse and identify a neural structure mediating this effect through the use of an ethanol self-administration and yohimbine-induced reinstatement paradigm. While yohimbine administration resulted in the reinstatement of ethanol-seeking behavior, the concurrent administration of yohimbine and oxytocin attenuated this effect, suggesting that oxytocin may disrupt stress-induced ethanol-seeking behavior. The central amygdala (CeA) is a structure that drives emotional responses and robustly expresses oxytocin receptors. Intra-CeA oxytocin similarly attenuated the yohimbine-induced reinstatement of ethanol-seeking behavior. These results demonstrate that oxytocin has the potential to attenuate stress-induced relapse into ethanol-seeking behavior, and that this mechanism occurs specifically within the central amygdala

The Same Sex Marriage Movement: Culture Shifting Through Discourses of Equal Rights and Family Values

Gay activists, by pursuing same sex marriage, have chosen a slyly radical struggle. It is to recognize in a public way that despite the fact that the confluence of public discourses on homosexuality has reached no agreement on whether gays should be equal citizens to heterosexuals, gays and lesbians are already living their lives in partnerships and families in such a way that they can begin to speak for recognition not only of themselves as individual citizens, but as family and partner units, without apologizing for who they are. This thesis focuses on the themes of equal rights, family values, and the intra-community debates over same sex marriage, while drawing from gay and lesbian narratives. The author seeks to reveal how gay and lesbian couples perceive their own needs and exclusions from societal recognitions and sometimes face that exclusion with difficulty. How does same sex marriage both speak to these needs and become a movement that attempt to articulate those needs