Drug-associated cues and drug dosage contribute to increased opioid seeking after abstinence.

ABSTRACT: Patients with opioid use disorder experience high rates of relapse during recovery, despite successful completion of rehabilitation programs. A key factor contributing to this problem is the long-lasting nature of drug-seeking behavior associated with opioid use. We modeled this behavior in a rat drug self-administration paradigm in which drug-seeking is higher after extended abstinence than during the acute abstinence phase. The goal of this study was to determine the contribution of discrete or discriminative drug cues and drug dosage to time-dependent increases in drug-seeking. We examined heroin-seeking after 2 or 21 days of abstinence from two different self-administration cue-context environments using high or low doses of heroin and matched animals for their drug intake history. Whe

SUBMITTER: Zanda MT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8295307 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature