LAUSR

Background: Burrowing is a rodent behavior validated as a robust and reproducible outcome measure to infer the global effect of pain in several inflammatory pain models. However, less is known about the effect of analgesics on burrowing in neuropathic pain models and no studies have determined burrowing performance in models of diabetes‐associated neuropathic pain. Objective: To compare the sensitivity of the burrowing assay in different neuropathic pain models: mononeuropathic pain and diabetic polyneuropathy. Methods: Burrowing performance was determined by the amount of substrate left in a hollow tube by rats with chronic constriction injury (CCI). In addition, burrowing performance, locomotion and pain development was assessed in the Zucker diabetic fatty (ZDF) rat model, resembling type‐2 diabetes. Efficacy of clinically‐active reference drugs (opioids, gabapentin and/or pregabalin) were investigated in these models. Burrowing behavior was additionally assessed in a second model, induced by streptozotocin (STZ) treatment, resembling type‐1 diabetes. Results: In the CCI model, moderate but consistent burrowing deficits were observed that persisted over a period of ≥20 days. Systemic administration of morphine, pregabalin and gabapentin reversed this deficit. In contrast, none of the reference drugs improved marked burrowing deficits detected in ZDF rats, and pregabalin did not reverse severe burrowing deficits observed in STZ rats. Conclusions: Burrowing performance cannot necessarily be used as pain‐related readout across pain models and largely depends on the model used, at least in models of neuropathy. Specifically, analgesic drug effects might be masked by general diabetes‐associated alteration of the animals' well‐being, resulting in false negative outcomes. HIGHLIGHTSBurrowing deficits are common to a range of neuropathic pain models.Known analgesics restore burrowing in rats with mononeuropathic injury, indicating that burrowing deficits are pain specific. Thus, burrowing can be used as a sensitive non‐evoked readout in this model.Known analgesics do not restore burrowing in rats with diabetic polyneuropathy, indicating diabetic complications beyond neuropathic pain impair burrowing performance.