Resurgence of alcohol seeking produced by discontinuing non-drug reinforcement as an animal model of drug relapse.

Full Abstract

Findings from basic behavioral research suggest that simply discontinuing reinforcement for a recently reinforced operant response can cause the recurrence (i.e. resurgence) of a different previously reinforced response. The present experiment examined resurgence as an animal model of drug relapse. Initially, rats pressed levers to self-administer alcohol during baseline conditions. Next, alcohol self-administration was discontinued and non-drug reinforcers (food pellets) were presented contingent on an alternative response (chain pulling). Finally, when the non-drug reinforcer was discontinued, alcohol seeking recurred even though alcohol was still unavailable for lever pressing. These results suggest that simply discontinuing non-drug reinforcement for a behavior may be sufficient to produce relapse to drug seeking. The resurgence procedure could provide a method to examine environmental, pharmacological, and neurobiological factors that lead to relapse following the loss of a non-drug source of reinforcement.

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Author information

Author/s: Podlesnik, Christopher A (CA); Jimenez-Gomez, Corina (C); Shahan, Timothy A (TA);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, Utah State University, Logan, Utah 84322, USA. capodlesnik(-atsign-)cc.usu.edu

Grants: AA013576 (Agency:NIAAA NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

Journal: Behavioural pharmacology (Behav Pharmacol), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2006-Jun; vol 17 (issue 4) : pp 369-74

Dates: Created 2006/08/17; Completed 2006/09/15; Revised 2007/11/14;

PMID: 16914956, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Alcoholism - psychology
Animals
Conditioning, Operant - drug effects
Disease Models, Animal
Extinction, Psychological
Food

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