Contextual control over relapse to drug seeking: Behavioural and neural mechanisms.

吸毒成瘾是澳大利亚一个主要的健康和社会问题。它始终与对个人用户、他们的家庭和社区的不利影响相关联。长期吸毒与身体问题（如心血管疾病）、精神健康问题（如抑郁和焦虑）和犯罪参与（如财产犯罪和监禁）发生率增加有关。吸毒成瘾的一个决定性特征是它是一种慢性复发的状态。60-80%试图戒断毒品的瘾君子会再次吸毒。支撑这种持续复发倾向的行为和大脑机制在很大程度上是未知的。该项目研究药物成瘾复发的行为和大脑机制。这个项目使用了一个有效的动物服药模型来询问为什么会复发。它将确定一些复发的环境因素和调节复发的大脑机制。因此，该项目将提供有关药物成瘾复发的重要信息，并可能有助于确定治疗干预的目标，并可能破坏成瘾周期。

Drug addiction is a major health and societal problem in Australia. It is consistently associated with an adverse impact upon individual users, their families, and communities. Prolonged drug use is associated with increased rates of physical problems (e.g., cardiovascular disease), mental health problems (e.g., depression and anxiety), and criminal involvement (e.g., property crimes and incarceration). A defining feature of drug addiction is that it is a chronically relapsing condition. Between 60-80% of addicts attempting to give up drug taking will relapse to drug taking. The behavioural and brain mechanisms which underpin this persistent propensity to relapse are largely unknown. This project studies the behavioural and brain mechanisms for relapse to drug addiction. This project uses a well validated animal model of drug taking to ask why relapse occurs. It will identify some of the environmental antecedents to relapse and the brain mechanisms which mediate relapse. As such, this project will project will provide important information about relapse to drug addiction and may help identify targets for therapeutic intervention and possibly disrupt the addictive cycle.