Operant Social Reward Decreases Incubation of Heroin Craving in Male and Female Rats.

Hot Off the Press – December 18 , 2019.

We recently developed a rat model of relapse after voluntary abstinence from methamphetamine self-administration that is based on behavioral treatments in humans with substance use problems. In the present study, we extend this work to heroin self-administration, demonstrating that when rats are given the opportunity to lever press for access to a social partner, they will abstain from lever pressing for heroin infusions. We also show that social choice–induced voluntary abstinence decreases the time-dependent increases in heroin seeking after cessation of drug self-administration (incubation of heroin craving). Lastly, we introduce a novel fully automated social self-administration and choice procedure.

Publication Information

Venniro, Marco; Russell, Trinity I; Zhang, Michelle; Shaham, Yavin

Operant Social Reward Decreases Incubation of Heroin Craving in Male and Female Rats. Journal Article

In: Biol Psychiatry, vol. 86, no. 11, pp. 848–856, 2019, ISSN: 1873-2402 (Electronic); 0006-3223 (Linking).

Abstract | Links

@article{Venniro:2019aa,

title = {Operant Social Reward Decreases Incubation of Heroin Craving in Male and Female Rats.},

author = {Marco Venniro and Trinity I Russell and Michelle Zhang and Yavin Shaham},

url = {https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31326085},

doi = {10.1016/j.biopsych.2019.05.018},

issn = {1873-2402 (Electronic); 0006-3223 (Linking)},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-12-01},

journal = {Biol Psychiatry},

volume = {86},

number = {11},

pages = {848--856},

address = {Behavioral Neuroscience Research Branch, Intramural Research Program, National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, Maryland. Electronic address: venniro.marco@nih.gov.},

abstract = {BACKGROUND: We recently reported that operant social choice-induced voluntary abstinence prevents incubation of methamphetamine craving. Here, we determined whether social choice-induced voluntary abstinence would prevent incubation of heroin craving. We also introduce a fully automatic social reward self-administration model that eliminates the intense workload and rat-human interaction of the original semiautomatic model. METHODS: In experiment 1, we trained male and female rats for social self-administration (6 days) and then for heroin self-administration (12 days). Next, we assessed relapse to heroin seeking after 1 and 15 abstinence days. Between tests, the rats underwent either forced or social choice-induced abstinence. In experiment 2, we developed a fully automatic social self-administration procedure by introducing a screen between the self-administration chamber and the social-peer chamber; the screen allows physical contact but prevents rats from crossing chambers. Next, we compared incubation of craving in rats with a history of standard (no-screen) or automatic (screen) social self-administration and social choice-induced abstinence. RESULTS: The time-dependent increase in heroin seeking after cessation of drug self-administration (incubation of craving) was lower after social choice-induced abstinence than after forced abstinence. There were no differences in social self-administration, social choice-induced abstinence, and incubation of craving in rats trained in the standard semiautomatic procedure versus the novel fully automatic procedure. CONCLUSIONS: Our study demonstrates the protective effect of rewarding social interaction on heroin self-administration and incubation of heroin craving and introduces a fully automatic social self-administration and choice procedure to investigate the role of volitional social interaction in drug addiction and other psychiatric disorders.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}