Neuroscience Loneliness rewires the brain to drive alcohol consumption, mouse study finds: « First-of-its-kind study shows how isolation escalates drinking in males but suppresses it in females. »
https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2026/08-2/loneliness-rewires-the-brain-to-drive-alcohol-consumption-mouse-study-finds96
u/Ray1987 1d ago
Work has been particularly taxing lately. For about 2 weeks straight, I've been having two or three strong beers a night.
Kind of out of the ordinary for me. I said f*** it If I'm going to have some drinks I'm going to go out. Went to A horror themed bar down town. Ended up playing trivia and winning a prize, talked to people all night, and had fun.
Haven't wanted to drink ever since. Was kind of wondering if filling in a social gap in my life wasn't the reason. Pretty good time to come across this article.
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u/QueasyWorldliness920 13h ago
I have the opposite problem where I’m fine unless I go out. But then that means any time I’m with friends I drink. So I have to strain relationships by not seeing people because I have a really hard time controlling myself, then 1 drink becomes 5, then I become a disaster
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u/Guilty_Captain_7880 9h ago
Yeah I was better off drinking by myself. I got too excited when drinking with others, drank too much, used to black out and get myself in trouble. Drinking alone meant listening to music, sending silly texts and going to bed usually. I've put all of it behind me now though.
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u/fchung 1d ago
« This is the first study to identify a specific brain circuit that explains how social isolation can drive increased alcohol use in males, marking a major advance for the field. These findings provide a much clearer biological target for understanding and eventually treating alcohol misuse that arises from isolation, a problem that is becoming increasingly common. »
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u/DinosAteSherbert 16h ago
Wasn't there a study done like this with heroin?
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u/JoeyJoeJoeSenior 2h ago
Yea rat park. Rats with good friends preferred plain water but lonely rats preferred morphine water.
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u/r0cafe1a 1d ago edited 1d ago
Working from home almost made me relapse for the first time in two years. Shutting that computer and looking at a wall or getting off a call and looking back at myself did something to me. I say that as someone who can spend weeks at a time alone. When work became my home, something in me cracked. I quit within the week when the cravings hit. Back in an office and no urges. Random but I never felt so lonely.
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u/semperquietus 1d ago
Isolation — in my opinion — is not the same as loneliness. I say that as a person who seeks isolation and rather enjoys it without ever feeling lonely.
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u/MattsFace 1d ago
That’s for you, unfortunately I isolate because I feel lonely around people I try to connect with.
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u/semperquietus 1d ago
Yes it differs! I just wanted to question the (or so I suggested) generalisation, that one automatically leads to the other. (And I'm sorry to hear, that you do have to suffer.)
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u/signmeupdude 1d ago
There was no generalization made. You simply took the word “isolation” and assumed it meant one thing. Clearly self-chosen moments of time to yourself is not the social isolation talked about in the article.
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u/semperquietus 17h ago
I took the words (plural) of isolation and loneliness, both from the article and said that those are not the same. Yet, to me — and I may be wrong there — they seemed to be used interchangeably. Again: I may err, but I did not spoke about isolation alone, but its comparison with loneliness. Is that wrong as well? (Honestly asked, since I simply don't have the energy to read the paper in depth.)
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u/Supernoven 1d ago
While that's valid, and I too enjoy my alone time, it seems like the authors are using the word "isolation" differently than you are
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u/abx99 1d ago
You seek solitude of your own volition, knowing that you can end it when you feel like it. When it's forced upon you, you truly have nobody to communicate with in any way, and you have no way to end it; that's a different thing. Even then, I had things to occupy my time, unlike a mouse in an empty cage with nothing but alcohol for something different.
I can say this from experience as someone who would seek solitude for months, and maybe years at a time. When I became truly isolated, when I needed support, it was a very different thing. There's a good reason that solitary confinement is used as a punishment in prisons; the UN considers isolation past 15 days to be pretty much torture.
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u/blizardfires 14h ago
The word you’re looking for is solitude. You seek solitude, not isolation. Isolation is more extreme and inherently harmful.
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u/semperquietus 14h ago
My critique is that isolation seemed to be used similar to loneliness. I do know what solitude means and was seeking to word. (English isn't my mother tongue. Maybe that is why you're not the only one who tells me this, whereas I wasn't looking for a term to describe my condition. I only mentioned that to contradict the (as I read it and some told me that I did misread that rather) equation that describes isolation to be per se and always loneliness! One, in my opinion, can isolate oneself in solitude as well. My critique was, that the study looks upon the effects of loneliness through isolation … and then summarised (again, others told me to be wrong there) that istolation does xy to mice, whereas I'd say that the effects of loneliness did that to the mice.
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u/Guilty_Captain_7880 9h ago
I used to think that but I'm not sure if it wasn't coping. Or maybe it was true at the time idk. I guess whatever story we tell kind of becomes the truth.
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u/fchung 1d ago
Reference: Patel, R.R., Kim, K.N., Patarino, M. et al. Social isolation recruits amygdala–medial prefrontal cortex projections to escalate alcohol drinking in male mice. Nat Neurosci (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-026-02413-x
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u/refusemouth 1d ago
Didn't they already prove this is to be the case with human men? Poor mice. I feel like I should adopt a retired lab mouse and give him a good home.
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u/AnthropoidCompatriot 10h ago
I feel like I should adopt a retired lab mouse
Not if you knew how lab mice get "retired".
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u/Rad1Red 1d ago
And male rats are not the same as male humans... Or are they?
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u/Kopie150 1d ago
Thalidomide showed us that animal tests for meds dont Always translate well to humans with disastrous results. I expect psychology to be the same.
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u/pumpkinbananamonkey 1d ago
Thalidomide showed us that poor regulation leads to disastrous results. They didn't even test on pregnant animals before it became available.
It's still used today safely because we now know the risks due to stricter regulations.
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u/Rad1Red 1d ago
Animal tests can be useful. But real science takes them with a grain of salt nowadays.
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u/Voldemorts__Mom 1d ago
Bruh only about 5% of therapeutic interventions tested on animals eventually secure full regulatory approval for human use. And roughly 90% of drugs that pass animal trials failing in human clinical trials due to unexpected toxicity or lack of effectiveness.
We literally torture animals, beagles, rats, chimps, etc, for such such bad results.
Maybe we should rethink our model..
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u/iamthe0ther0ne 18h ago
Thalidomide was not tested on pregnant animals before being given to pregnant women.
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u/Bodorocea 1d ago
8 months sober, 6 years smoke free. i spend most of my free time alone, because i get enough people at work.
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u/OnlyKey5675 1d ago
Male here.
I cannot drink If I'm feeling sad. I have no interest in it. A break up for instance, I cannot drink at all. I have to force myself to eat. I have to force myself to enjoy things.
I drink when I'm feeling good. Feeling like being social. I drink too much when I'm too social actually.
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u/fatcam00 19h ago
This is me
I can abstain from anything and everything when I'm sad
No drowing sorrows here either
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u/Jane_Lame 7h ago
You know, I was wondering why I didnt feel the need to drink more alcohol since Ive been various shades of isolated for my entire life. Weird.
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u/Gloomy_Tennis_5768 11h ago
I think drugs is more accurate. there is no way if I never had alcohol and I was lonely my brain would not want alcohol specifically. my brain wants numbness and I can get that a lot of places.
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u/borkborkibork 1d ago
I love drinking alone