Persistent pain maintains morphine-seeking behavior after morphine withdrawal through reduced MeCP2 repression of GluA1 in rat central amygdala.

ABSTRACT: As long-term opioids are increasingly used for control of chronic pain, how pain affects the rewarding effect of opioids and hence risk of prescription opioid misuse and abuse remains a healthcare concern and a challenging issue in current pain management. In this study, using a rat model of morphine self-administration, we investigated the molecular mechanisms underlying the impact of pain on operant behavior of morphine intake and morphine seeking before and after morphine withdrawal. We found that rats with persistent pain consumed a similar amount of daily morphine to that in control rats without pain, but maintained their level-pressing behavior of morphine seeking after abstinence of morphine at 0.2 mg/kg, whereas this behavior was gradually diminished in control rats. In the central

SUBMITTER: Hou YY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4339367 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature