Oxytocin and vasopressin modulation of social anxiety following adolescent intermittent ethanol exposure.

These findings demonstrate that AIE induces changes in OXT-R and AVP-R surface expression in the hypothalamus along with social anxiety-like alterations in male rats. These social anxiety-like alterations can be reversed either by activation of the OXT system or by suppression of the AVP system, data that support the hypothesis that social anxiety-like alterations induced by adolescent alcohol exposure in male rats are associated at least in part with an OXT/AVP imbalance.