INTRODUCTION The use and subsequent abuse of drugs especially among our youths these days is very alarming, hence the “war” against drugs by the government in all ramifications. Two drugs that are commonly used by the youths because of the social acceptability and relative ease with which they are gotten are alcohol and nicotine. Alcohol is gotten from various alcohol beverages such as beer, gin, whisky, rum and so on, while nico- tine is mainly from tobacco (cigarette) smoking. Alcohol belongs to a class of drugs known as sedatives and hypnotics, which produce a general lowering of the Central Nervous System (CNS). For Example, the polysynaptic structure of the Reticular Activating System (RAS) and certain cortical sites are particularly susceptible to alcohol (Greenberg, 1953). For most people, the hazardous effect of alcohol is not known (Oyefeso, 1991), hence its consumption is regar- ded as a hallmark of socialization, its pleasure therefore plays a vital role in its level of misuse with its attendant consequences. For example, with chronic consumption of alcohol the indivi- dual is likely to manifest a lack of concern for home, friends, health, and social status (Balogun and Adesuyan, 1995). The general trend of research interest is that of effects of alcohol on social or other direc- ted behaviours. One of such behaviours is body maintenance behaviour of the drug users. Main- tenance behaviours are those that are directed at improving and sustaining the physical body such as face washing and body grooming in rats, sex, drinking, eating, sleeping, aggression and domi- © Kamla-Raj 2006 J. Hum. Ecol., 19(1): 21-24 (2006) Chronic Intake of Separate and Combined Alcohol and Nicotine on Body Maintenance Among Albino Rats Shyngle Kolawole Balogun Department of Psychology, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria KEYWORDS Alcohol. Nicotine. Body Maintenance ABSTRACT Using 20 male rats that were housed in four groups of five rats each, the separate and combined effects of alcohol and nicotine was experimentally tested on body maintenance behaviour of food and water intake of rats. It was observed that while alcohol reduced food intake, nicotine rather increased food intake. However, there was a great reduction of food intake with the combined administration of the two drugs. On the other hand, alcohol intake facilitated increase of water intake as a result of its dehydration effect, whereas nicotine reduced the level of water intake. The combined administration of the two drugs further reduced water intake. The health and policy implications of these findings were discussed. nance behaviour. It would therefore be interes- ting to investigate further the effects of alcohol on these behaviours as this would have impli- cations for our youths health wise. Not only this, because our youths usually take this drug in conjunction with other drugs especially tobacco in social gatherings, it would be interesting to investigate the singular and interactive effects of both drugs i.e. alcohol and nicotine (tobacco) on body maintenance behaviour of food and water intake. This is predicated upon the assump- tion that indices of pathological disorders include among others, loss of appetite, loss of interest in self and people around or taking to consolation drinking (Balogun and Adesuyan, 1995), and because studies where the combined effects of these drugs on these behaviours have been investigated are rare if at all they exist. Studies with rats have shown the effects of alcohol on each of these maintenance behaviour indices (e.g. Balogun and Adesuyan, 1995; Richardson and Ramsey, 1990; Miczek and Tidjey, 1989). Richardson and Ramsey (1990) found that fluid and food intake was reduced in rats when fed with ethanol as compared with when given ordinary drinking water even though the frequency was not affected. Dosage increase in ethanol injection was also reported to have negative relationship with drinking behaviour of rats. This was attributed to the depression of the CNS by the alcohol. On the other hand, nico- tine appears to be the only pharmacologically active substance in tobacco smoke, apart from carcinogenic tars and carbon monoxide. Animal studies indicate that nicotine stimulates the release of norepinephrine and dopamine from