Therapeutic challenges for concurrent ethanol and nicotine consumption: naltrexone and varenicline fail to alter simultaneous ethanol and nicotine intake by female alcohol-preferring (P) rats.

The results indicate the standard pharmacological treatments for nicotine dependence and AUD were effective at reducing consumption of the targeted reinforcer but neither reduced EtOH+NIC co-use/abuse. These findings suggest that co-abuse may promote unique neuroadaptations that require models of polysubstance abuse to develop pharmacotherapeutics to treat AUD and nicotine dependence.