The increasingly popular combination of “energy drinks” containing high amounts of caffeine and alcohol has been shown to induce a stimulated, rather than sedated, state which may result in increased binge drinking and increased risk for alcohol-attributable accidents. We sought to examine consumption patterns of and withdrawal from alcohol and caffeine using a voluntary co-consumption animal model. Male and female adult C57BL/6J mice were given access to increasing doses of caffeine (0.01–0.05%) and/or alcohol (3–20%) in a two-bottle choice, intermittent access voluntary paradigm with fluid consumption recorded daily. Anxiety-like behavior during withdrawal was assessed via elevated plus maze or open field test in experiment 2. Increasing both alcohol and caffeine simultaneously in Experiment 1 resulted in no significant changes in co-consumption compared to mice given access to only alcohol or caffeine. Experiment 2 held caffeine concentration steady while slowly increasing alcohol content and resulted in mice consuming more alcohol when it was consumed in tandem with low dose caffeine. Both male and female mice consumed more caffeine when it was paired with alcohol; however, no significant differences were observed during withdrawal behavior. These results suggest that caffeine may dose-dependently positively influence alcohol consumption in mice and echo clinical literature suggesting that caffeine and alcohol together may result in a heightened state of stimulation and lead to further binge drinking. The intermittent access paradigm affords increased translational validity regarding investigations of alcohol and caffeine co-consumption and may be useful in identifying the neurobiological mechanisms concerning co-consumption of such substances.

越来越流行的含有大量咖啡因和酒精的“能量饮料”组合已被证明会诱发刺激状态，而不是镇静状态，这可能会导致酗酒增加和酒精引起事故的风险增加。我们试图使用自愿共同消费动物模型来检查酒精和咖啡因的消费模式和戒断模式。雄性和雌性成年 C57BL/6J 小鼠接受增加剂量的咖啡因 (0.01-0.05%) 和/或酒精 (3-20%) 的两瓶选择，间歇性进入自愿范式，每天记录液体消耗。在实验 2 中通过高架十字迷宫或野外测试评估戒断期间的焦虑样行为。与仅获得酒精或咖啡因的小鼠相比，在实验 1 中同时增加酒精和咖啡因导致共同消耗没有显着变化。实验 2 保持咖啡因浓度稳定，同时缓慢增加酒精含量，导致小鼠在与低剂量咖啡因同时食用时摄入更多酒精。与酒精搭配时，雄性和雌性小鼠都会摄入更多的咖啡因；然而，在戒断行为期间没有观察到显着差异。这些结果表明，咖啡因可能对小鼠的饮酒量产生剂量依赖性的积极影响，并且与临床文献相呼应，这表明咖啡因和酒精一起可能会导致刺激状态增强并导致进一步酗酒。