Alcohol withdrawal convulsions in genetically different populations of mice.

Individual Swiss-Webster mice differed in the intensity of their withdrawal reactions after a standard regimen of alcohol administration, and offspring resembled their parents in this respect. Inbred strains of mice also differed in the severity of their alcohol withdrawal reactions. C57BL mice showed almost no convulsions on handling. These results indicate that a genetic factor participates in determining the severity of alcohol withdrawal seizures in mice. The sensitivity to excitant actions of reserpine paralleled the sensitivity to alcohol withdrawal reactions in three strains of mice but not among individual mice of a genetically heterogeneous stock. The strain correlation between these traits was therefore fortuitous and does not demonstrate a common biochemical lesion in alcohol-withdrawn and reserpine-treated mice.