Dose preference and dose escalation in extended-access cocaine self-administration in Fischer and Lewis rats.

ABSTRACT:

Rationale

Drug addiction is a disease with a genetic component that may be involved in different stages of its progression. Cocaine users escalate unit doses and frequency of self-administration events in naturalistic settings. Rats that self-administer drugs of abuse over extended sessions increase the number of infusions over days.

Objectives

Comparison of two genetically different inbred rat strains, Fischer and Lewis, in a new self-administration paradigm whereby rats select between different unit doses of cocaine, thus potentially escalating the unit dose and the number of infusions.

Methods

Extended (18 h/day) self-administration sessions lasted for 14 days. Rats had access to two active levers associated with two different unit doses of cocaine. If a rat showed

SUBMITTER: Picetti R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2926930 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature