PROTECTIVE EFFECT OF THE CALCIUM CHANNEL BLOCKER, NIFEDIPINE, AGAINST ALCOHOL WITHDRAWAL-INDUCED ANXIETY IN RATS

The objective of the present study was to measure anxiety as a sign of alcohol withdrawal in an animal model of anxiety and to assess the protective effect of the calcium channel blocker, nifedipine. against alcohol-withdrawal -induced anxiety in male rats. Fifty-six adult male albino rats were used in the current study. Animals were randomly divided into t10 groups. normal rats and alcohol- exposed rats. The normal animals were given free access to tap water: the normal group staved alcohol naive for the remainder period of the study. The animals of the alcohol-exposed group were given free access to ethanol solution (10% v/v) in their home cages. Rats were given access to ethanol in their home cages for three cycles of 5 consecutive days, interspersed by two days of tap Water. Each group, normal or alcohol-exposed group, was further randomly subdivided into 4 subgroups. 7 rats each: the animals of these subgroups received the following treatments: Normal saline (NACT 0.9%). Diazepam at a dose of 0.5mg/kg. i.p. 30-minutes before anxiety test, Nifedipine at doses of 10mg/kg. i.p. 30-minutes before anxiety test. And Nifedipine. 5mg/kg. i.p. daily for 5 days a Week for 3 weeks along with ethanol exposure. Test of anxiety was conducted after 3 cycles of tap water or ethanol exposure. Tap water on ethanol solution was removed from all animal cages at 4:00p.m the day before anxiety testing to induce water-deprivation in normal animals and alcohol-withdrawal in alcohol-exposed rats. respectively. The present results show that alcohol exposure was effective in producing anxiety as a sign of alcohol-withdrawal in rats. Treatment with the lower dose of nifedipine (5mg/kg). for three weeks along with alcohol exposure, was more effective in alleviating the  -induced anxiety as compared to the acute effect of the higher dose (nifedipine, 10mg/kg). Diazepam induced a comparable anxiolytic effect. It could be concluded that calcium channel blockers may offer a possible substitute for benzodiazepine anxiolytics to treat alcohol-withdrawal symptoms because they do not induce physical dependence.