Quitting alcohol changes the brain and can increase the risk of compulsive drinking – new research in mice

Researchers studying mice given long-term alcohol access followed by forced abstinence found that some developed 'aversion-resistant' drinking, continuing to consume alcohol even after it was made increasingly bitter with quinine, and drinking more of it than mice that hadn't gone through forced abstinence.

This behavior correlated with elevated activity in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST), a brain region tied to anxiety and depression in alcohol use disorder, and the heightened activity appeared even before the mice were given access to the bitter alcohol — suggesting a possible screening signal for relapse risk.

With alcohol-related deaths in 2024 running 4.5 times higher than opioid deaths and roughly 30 million Americans meeting criteria for alcohol use disorder, the researchers frame identifying at-risk individuals via BNST activity as a potential future treatment target, pending confirmation in human studies.

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