Cocaine has for a long time been, and remains, a commonly abused drug. In order to understand whycocaine users have a hard time stopping using the drug we have to get a better understanding of addiction.A newly developed self-administration procedure that causes rats to develop an increased motivation toself-administer cocaine will be used as an animal model to study the addictive process. Two factors appearto be important leading to an increased reinforcing efficacy of cocaine: round-the-clock access for at least10 days and a forced deprivation or abstinence period. Using microdialysis the levels of dopamine andglutamate in the nucleus accumbens will be examined following a binge/abstinence protocol. These levelswill be compared to levels following an acute cocaine challenge in a hope to find the neuroadaptations thattake place in addiction.
| Chiodo, Keri A; Lack, Christopher M; Roberts, David C S (2008) Cocaine self-administration reinforced on a progressive ratio schedule decreases with continuous D-amphetamine treatment in rats. Psychopharmacology (Berl) 200:465-73 |
