Effects of Drugs in an Animal Model of Relapse

描述：(申请人提供) 复发是药物依赖治疗中的一个长期问题。虽然 滥用药物的人可能会经历一段时间的禁欲，他们经常说 重新开始吸毒。通常，复发是由于短暂接触 导致失去控制并恢复正常用药的药物。这种药 自我给药恢复过程是一种重要的动物模型。 旧病复发。动物首先学会自我给药，然后 运送药物的机会被剥夺了。再次接触这种药物会产生 可靠地恢复杜绝的毒品寻找。尽管这一过程 在了解复发的过程中提供了重要的进展，通过 目前尚不清楚哪些药物可以恢复熄灭的行为。激励措施 动机账户是一种有影响力的复发模式，它认为 呈现一种有益的刺激，如药物，会增加有机体的 获得这种刺激的动机。其他可能的机制 然而，恢复很难评估，因为药物可能有 在药物中不能解开的几种同时作用 自我管理程序。除了起到增强剂的作用，药物 也可作为药物可获得性的信号(区别性刺激)。 药物也可以直接(未经学习和非特异性的)增加发病率。 对行为的影响与增强效果无关。审视企业的角色 由食物维持的恢复行为的药物将强化分开， 药物的区别性和直接作用，因为药物的作用是 一个增强剂被移走。拟议中的实验将评估 药物诱导的恢复是药物维持的行为所特有的 检查1)鉴别作用和2)药物的直接作用 恢复以前由食物维持的熄灭行为。实验1 将检查精神运动兴奋剂可卡因的恢复效果 实验2将检查鸦片类吗啡的恢复作用。在……里面 总结，成功地维持禁欲对健康和 前吸毒者的健康状况。拟议中的实验将有助于 阐明复职涉及的各种机制，为复职提供依据 为了开发更好的行为和药物治疗方法 防止吸毒复发。

DESCRIPTION: (provided by the applicant) Relapse is a persistent problem in treatment of drug dependence. Although individuals who abuse drugs may achieve periods of abstinence, they frequently reinitiate drug use. Often, relapse is precipitated by brief exposure to the drug that results in loss of control and return to regular drug use. The drug self-administration reinstatement procedure is an important animal model of relapse. Animals first learn to self-administer a drug, and then the opportunity for drug deliveries is removed. Re-exposure to the drug produces reliable reinstatement of extinguished drug seeking. Although this procedure has provided important advances in the understanding of relapse, the process by which drugs reinstate extinguished behavior is not clear. The incentive motivational account, an influential model of relapse, maintains that presentations of a rewarding stimulus such as a drug increase the organism's motivation to acquire that stimulus. Other possible mechanisms of reinstatement, however, are difficult to assess because the drug may have several simultaneous effects that cannot be disentangled in the drug self-administration procedure. In addition to functioning as reinforcers, drugs may also function as signals (discriminative stimuli) for drug availability. Drugs could also produce direct (unlearned and unspecific) rate-increasing effects on behavior unrelated to the reinforcing effects. Examining the role of drugs in reinstating behavior maintained by food separates the reinforcing, discriminative, and direct effects of drugs because the function of the drug as a reinforcer is removed. The proposed experiments will evaluate whether drug-induced reinstatement is specific to behavior maintained by drugs by examining 1) the discriminative effects and 2) the direct effects of drugs in reinstating extinguished behavior previously maintained by food. Experiment 1 will examine the reinstating effects of the psychomotor stimulant cocaine and Experiment 2 will examine the reinstating effects of the opiate morphine. In summary, successful maintenance of abstinence is critical to the health and well being of former drug users. The proposed experiments will help to elucidate the various mechanisms involved in reinstatement to provide the basis for the development of better behavioral and pharmacological treatments to prevent relapse to drug abuse.