Increased anxiety of CIE rats is alleviated by EtOH. The anxiolytic effect of EtOH (0.5 g/kg, p.o.) was tested on the elevated plus maze. Rats were divided in four groups: vehicle- and EtOH-treated controls and vehicle- and EtOH-treated CIE rats. Data are reported as mean ± SEM of percentage of entries in open arms and number of total entries (A) and percentage of time in different arms (B). EtOH significantly increased the number of open arms entries in CIE (*p = 0.02) and in controls (*p = 0.03) and for CIE rats, the time spent in open arms (*p = 0.027).