Sex differences in the neuroadaptations associated with incubated cocaine-craving: A focus on the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Women have a shorter course from initial cocaine use to meeting the criteria for cocaine use disorder as compared to men. Preclinical findings similarly indicate that females develop key features of an addiction-like phenotype faster than males, including an enhanced motivation for cocaine and compulsive use, indicating that this phenomenon is biologically based. The goals of this study were to determine whether cocaine-craving, another key feature of addiction, also develops sooner during withdrawal in females than males and to determine whether there are sex differences in the molecular mechanisms associated with its development focusing on markers known to mediate cocaine-craving in males (i.e., dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, dmPFC, expression of brain-derived neuro

SUBMITTER: Towers EB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9854116 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature