ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a critical evaluation of schedule-induced polydipsia (SIP) as an animal model of human alcoholism. Despite concerns regarding the use of animal models of human pathology, a wide range of human conditions find an analogue in animal research. SIP is elective in nature with animals voluntarily choosing and consuming the intoxicating amounts of alcohol. If animals continue to consume a poison-associated solution under the SIP procedure, this would argue against the view that SIP was voluntary. The environment can be seen as actually inducing drug taking itself, an issue which has important implications for the use of schedule-induced polydipsia as an animal model of alcoholism. If human alcohol intake and alcoholism are in any way induced by the intermittent delivery of rewards, humans should display schedule-induced behavior under controlled laboratory conditions in which scheduled rewards are presented to the subject.
