Effects of Drugs in an Animal Model of Relapse

描述：（申请人提供） 复吸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达到禁欲期，他们经常 重新开始使用药物。通常情况下，复发是由短暂暴露于 导致失去控制并恢复正常用药的药物。药物 自我给药恢复程序是一种重要的动物模型， 复发动物首先学会自我给药，然后 药物递送的机会被移除。再次接触毒品会产生 可靠地恢复已熄灭的药物寻求。虽然这个过程 在理解复发方面取得了重要进展， 哪种药物能恢复已消失的行为尚不清楚。激励 动机帐户，一个有影响力的复发模型，坚持认为， 奖励性刺激物（如药物）的呈现增加了生物体的 获得这种刺激的动机。其他可能的机制 然而，恢复是很难评估的，因为药物可能有 在药物中无法分离的几种同时发生的作用 自我管理程序。药物除了起麻醉剂的作用外， 也可以作为药物可用性的信号（区别性刺激）。 药物也可以产生直接的（非学习的和非特异性的）速率增加 对行为的影响与强化效应无关。审查联合国的作用 由食物维持的恢复行为中的药物分离增强， 由于药物的作用， 移去一个过滤器。实验将评估是否 药物诱导的恢复是特定于药物维持的行为， 检查1）辨别作用和2）药物的直接作用， 恢复先前由食物维持的已消失的行为。实验1 将检查精神运动兴奋剂可卡因的恢复效果， 实验2将检查阿片类吗啡的恢复作用。在 总之，成功地保持禁欲对健康至关重要， 前吸毒者的健康。拟议的实验将有助于 阐明复职所涉及的各种机制， 为了开发更好的行为和药物治疗， 预防药物滥用复发。

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.