TITLE:
Schedule-Induced Polydipsia: Searching for the Endophenotype of Compulsive Behavior
AUTHORS:
Pilar Flores, Ana Sánchez-Kuhn, Ana Merchán, Olga Vilches, Sergio García-Martín, Margarita Moreno
KEYWORDS:
Compulsivity, Endophenotype, Schedule-Induced Polydipsia, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Schizophrenia
JOURNAL NAME:
World Journal of Neuroscience,
Vol.4 No.3,
June
26,
2014
ABSTRACT: The development of excessive and persistent drinking under intermittent
food-reinforcement schedules, known Schedule-induced polydipsia (SIP), has been proposed as a successful
animal model to study compulsive behaviors. On the last decade, we have been
working in our laboratory on the stratification of the compulsive rats on SIP
in order to know whether differences in the acquisition of compulsive drinking behavior
could predict alterations in other behavioral measures as well as in the
neurochemical function typically associated with compulsive spectrum disorders.
The aim of this review is to collate the main findings relevant to the
characterization and use of the high compulsive drinking rats (HD) in SIP as a
possible compulsive endophenotype. The review of the genetic, behavioral and
neurochemical differences found in the selection allows us to conclude that HD
rats could be a valid model for studying the compulsive phenotype and modelling
psychopathology common to a variety of compulsivity spectrum disorders such as
obsessivecompulsive disorder (OCD), schizophrenia and alcohol abuse.