Link to the lab blog post with more details: www.oliviergeorge.com/post/why-we...

This work was supported by NIDA and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. Full paper: Sneddon et al. (2026), Psychopharmacology.
link.springer.com/article/10....

If anyone, foundations, philanthropists, industry partners, is interested in funding fundamental research on female-specific vulnerability to addiction, please reach out. This work is too important to let die because of funding instability.

I have to be honest about something, though. We would love to continue this work. But last year, the grant supporting this research was canceled, then reinstated 6 months later, and the damage was done.

Researchers in the field often exclude animals that are unusual (low intake, erratic behavior, irregular estrus cycle) for consistency. That means we’ve been systematically removing the very animals that may allow us to understand vulnerable human subpopulations.

Our data suggest the arrow may also point in the other direction that pre-existing hormonal dysregulation may shape who becomes most vulnerable to compulsive addiction.

Why does this matter beyond the lab? 15–25% of women experience menstrual irregularities, and those women show ~40% higher rates of mental health disorders, including substance use disorders. The causal direction is usually assumed to run one way: drugs disrupt hormones.

The rats with the most disrupted hormonal cycling were the ones most willing to endure pain to get cocaine.

Only footshock-resistant responding (Panel Q) showed a significant effect, rats with score 3 took significantly more cocaine despite punishment.

Wistar controls? 60% regular, right in line with published norms.

Here’s where it connects to addiction. Rats with the most severe cycling irregularities took significantly more cocaine during a session where each infusion carried a 30% chance of electric footshock.

So NIAAA strategic plan explicitly says ‘advancing research on women’s health’ but I thought women was a banned word…now if I write this grant on women & alcohol…🗣️DON’T PISS ME OFF

Sad to be missing out on all of the great science at ACNP this year, but apparently even if I was there, I would not be able to enjoy the current sessions because someone is on a their 7thday of a nap boycott😂😵‍💫

Wanted to look up some seasonal flu info & it’s pretty sad I instinctively skipped the CDC website. I realized I pretty much all of skip all the HHS related sites, SAMHSA, NIH nowadays…I cannot wait for this 💩show to be over

Thank you so much! I was planning to bring a pump back & forth but I’ll just leave my extra there! I never considered freezing at the office 🤔. AND yikes I do not want to go back to those oversupply days so that’s a great reminder to take the pump off

No one talks about how difficult it can be to lose one of your mentors/science mom as an early career investigator. CAB was one of one 😊

As I transition back to academia after a beautiful maternity leave, I need all the advice from my fellow science mommas, especially those that breastfeed! How in the world do you manage teaching research grant writing mentoring and being a mom?!?! Times like this make me miss Charlotte even more

As an ECI this is super discouraging…I was working on a grant, I will continue to work on grants but the current landscape reminds me to focus more on what’s important not what grants will be available when I return from maternity leave

NIH pulled 20+ funding opportunities yesterday, everything from addiction to cancer to the BRAIN initiative to implementation science & back!

grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

It’s so interesting that the current admin says it will invest in HBCUs but turns around & terminates the SURE program which directly benefits smaller universities & HBCUs…it almost seems like that executive order was all for show *gasps in fake surprise*

No way that anyone with any amount of intelligence or common sense can believe if this is someway, efficient or best practice..one has to assume this is a tacit to intimidate & cause mass chaos by keeping the fed work force in a constant state of fear & uncertainty bc this level of incompetence