Chronic Voluntary Morphine Intake Is Associated with Changes in Brain Structures Involved in Drug Dependence in a Rat Model of Polydrug Use.

ABSTRACT: Chronic opioid intake leads to several brain changes involved in the development of dependence, whereby an early hedonistic effect (liking) extends to the need to self-administer the drug (wanting), the latter being mostly a prefrontal-striatal function. The development of animal models for voluntary oral opioid intake represents an important tool for identifying the cellular and molecular alterations induced by chronic opioid use. Studies mainly in humans have shown that polydrug use and drug dependence are shared across various substances. We hypothesize that an animal bred for its alcohol preference would develop opioid dependence and further that this would be associated with the overt cortical abnormalities clinically described for opioid addicts. We show that Wistar-derived outbred U

SUBMITTER: Quintanilla ME 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10707256 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature