A Novel Animal Model of Cocaine Addiction

描述：可卡因成瘾在北美是一个医学问题， 巨大的社会和经济成本。大约200万美国人使用 可卡因习惯，那些寻求治疗的人发现它非常 很难戒除，复发率很高。一种药物可以帮助 在治疗的早期阶段控制对可卡因的渴望将有助于 让病人留在治疗方案中。动物模型是测试的关键 潜在的治疗药物，并评估潜在的神经生物学 吸毒该提案将解决成瘾的两个关键特征 过程第一个是吸食可卡因的动机逐渐增加 第二个是出现了滥用毒品的模式。可卡因 大鼠的自我给药将用于模拟这些基本方面， 人类吸毒一种新的程序已经开发出来， 在整个24个黑暗/光明周期中获得可卡因（在离散试验期间）。 不同的摄入模式（无论是昼夜节律或暴饮暴食）产生 这取决于试验的剂量和频率。的总体目标 这个建议是为了定义模型成瘾的关键因素， 过程具体来说，我们将（1）定义影响 从控制（昼夜节律）摄入过渡到暴食样，失调 自我管理模式，（2）识别导致激励的因素 可卡因成瘾过程中的变化（如总摄入量， 摄入量和无药期）和（3）表征 暴饮暴食式的摄入模式的发展和增加的动机， 自己服用可卡因

DESCRIPTION: Cocaine addiction in North America is a medical problem with profound social and financial cost. Approximately 2 million Americans use cocaine habitually, and those seeking treatment find it extraordinarily difficult to abstain and relapse rates are high. A medication that would help control the cravings for cocaine during the early stages of therapy would help retain patients in treatment programs. An animal model is essential for testing potentially therapeutic drugs and for evaluating the underlying neurobiology of drug abuse. This proposal will address two key features of the addictive process. The first is a progressive increase in the motivation to take cocaine and the second is the emergence of binge patterns of drug use. Cocaine self-administration in rats will be used to model these fundamental aspects of human drug taking. A novel procedure has been developed that permits continual access to cocaine (during discrete trials) throughout the 24 dark/light cycle. Different patterns of intake (either circadian or binge-like) are engendered depending on the dose and frequency of the trials. The overall objective of this proposal is to define the critical factors that model the addictive process. Specifically we will (1) define the parameters that affect the transition from controlled (circadian) intake to binge-like, dysregulated patterns of self-administration, (2) identify factors that lead to motivational changes across the cocaine addiction process (such as total intake, pattern to intake, and drug-free periods) and (3) characterize individual differences in the development of binge-like patterns of intake and an increased motivation to self-administer cocaine.