Opioid and Psychostimulant Taking: Testing the Impact of Behavioral Economic Contexts

该项目的广泛的长期目标是确定可能解释物质使用为什么 我们的目标是研究药物滥用的情况，并确定最有效地减少药物使用的方法。这两个目标都是 与国家药物滥用研究所的使命保持一致。更具体地说， 这里将采取经济方法，通过实验测试控制可卡因和阿片类药物的变量， 在药物滥用的动物（大鼠）模型中采取行为。成瘾被认为是反复的， 药物的不适应性选择超过重要的非药物奖励。行为经济学的研究 我发现，决定两种奖励之间选择的最重要因素之一是如何 它们沿着取代-互补连续体相互作用。如果是替代品， 一种减水剂导致该减水剂的消耗减少而另一种减水剂的消耗增加， 受试者将相对更多的行为分配给现在更便宜的选项。如果补充，增加价格 一种食物减少了两种食物的消耗，但是，与直觉相反， 更多的行为，现在更昂贵的选择。如果他们是独立的，那么选择是相对的， 对价格变化不敏感。关于可卡因和阿片类药物等精神兴奋剂 海洛因与非毒品替代品在可替代性/互补性方面有关系。这一知识空白 严重限制了我们解释、预测或修改这些药物和非药物之间选择的能力。 替代品.该提案将通过三个具体目标来解决这一知识差距。具体目标1将 测试可卡因和海洛因的替代程度，独立性，或互补性， 各种非药物替代品（包括阳性和阴性药物）。具体目标2将 研究具有不同替代性/互补性的非药物替代剂的可用性， 可卡因和海洛因影响毒品价值（根据行为经济学定义，价值反映了 受试者为获得药物所做的许多努力）。具体目标3将测试这些药物如何与 非药物成瘾者在从初始/娱乐使用到成瘾的过渡中发生变化， 在间歇性进入自我给药之前和之后研究替代性/互补性（a 产生类似成瘾行为的过程）。这项研究的完成将提供重要的新的 关于导致过度分配药物行为的因素的信息，这是 物质使用障碍是当今公共卫生的一个重大问题。通过了解是什么导致过度 分配对药物的行为，我们可以学习如何最有效地修改行为， 减少了选择，这些信息可用于改善对物质使用障碍的治疗。

The broad, long-term objective of this project is to identify factors that may explain why substance use disorders occur and to identify methods for most effectively reducing drug use. Both of these goals are aligned with the mission of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. More specifically, a behavioral economic approach will be taken here to experimentally test variables that control cocaine- and opioid- taking behavior in an animal (rat) model of drug abuse. Addiction has been conceptualized as repeated, maladaptive choice of drugs over important non-drug rewards. Research in behavioral economics has found that one of the most important factors determining choice between two reinforcers (rewards) is how they interact along the substitute-to-complement continuum. If substitutes, increasing the price of one reinforcer results in reduced consumption of that reinforcer and increased consumption of the other because subjects allocate relatively more behavior to the now cheaper option. If complements, increasing the price of one reinforcer reduces consumption of both reinforcers, but, counterintuitively, subjects allocate relatively more behavior to the now more expensive option. If they are independents, then choice is relatively insensitive to price changes. Little is known about how psychostimulants like cocaine and opioids like heroin relate to non-drug alternatives in terms of substitutability/complementarity. This knowledge gap significantly limits our ability to explain, predict, or modify choice between these drugs and non-drug alternatives. This proposal will address this knowledge gap with three Specific Aims. Specific Aim 1 will test cocaine and heroin’s degree of substitution, independence, or complementarity with respect to a variety of non-drug alternatives (including both positive and negative reinforcers). Specific Aim 2 will investigate how the availability of non-drug reinforcers of varying substitutability/complementarity with cocaine and heroin affects drug value (defined in terms of behavioral economics, where value reflects how much effort subjects make to obtain the drug). Specific Aim 3 will test how these drugs’ interactions with non-drug reinforcers change on the transition from initiation/recreational use to addiction by investigating substitutability/complementarity before and after intermittent access self-administration (a procedure that produces addiction-like behavior). Completion of this research will provide important new information about factors responsible for the excessive allocation of behavior to drugs that is a hallmark of substance use disorder, a significant problem for public health today. By learning what causes excessive allocation of behavior towards drugs, we can learn how to most effectively modify behavior such that drug choice is reduced and this information can be used to improve treatments for substance use disorder.