Induction of Physical Dependence on Alcohol in Rodents

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Abstract
The understanding of human diseases and their treatment in terms of molecular mechanisms owes much to animal experimentation. Specifically, the induction of diseases in animals by the same pathogenetic factors that induce the disease in man has been of great value, particularly if the experimental conditions closely simulate those of the human diseases. Typical examples are infectious diseases, hypertension secondary to renal disease, coronary artery disease secondary to hyperlipemias, diabetes mellitus secondary to insulin deficiency and many others. The development of drugs for the treatment of diseases in man has often been developed empirically in animal models and the molecular mechanisms have been studied almost as an afterthought. With the rapid development of molecular pharmacology, the order of events is increasingly reversed. A classical example is the development of the cancer drug 5-fluorouracil by Heidelberger (1) based purely on predictions made from theoretical molecular pharmacology.