Journal
BEHAVIOURAL PHARMACOLOGY
Volume 17, Issue 8, Pages 715-724Publisher
LIPPINCOTT WILLIAMS & WILKINS
DOI: 10.1097/FBP.0b013e3280116e6f
Keywords
amphetamine; cocaine; dependence; dopamine transporter; ethanol; maternal deprivation; opiate; oral self-administration; rat; vulnerability
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Maternal deprivation has been shown to increase vulnerability to morphine dependence and to disturb the enkephalinergic system in adulthood. To study whether or not this vulnerability to opiates is a specific feature, we examined oral self-administration behaviour of various reinforcing substances. Experiments were performed with morphine (25 mg/I), ethanol (10%), amphetamine (25 mg/I) and cocaine (100 mg/I). Drugs were available in a continuous free choice paradigm during 3 months. Cocaine and ethanol consumption and preference were similar in both deprived and control rats. Deprived rats greatly increased their morphine consumption and 78% of them showed a progressive decrease in morphine aversion. Only a slight, but significant, increase in oral amphetamine consumption was observed in deprived rats when compared with control rats. The difference in amphetamine self-administration in control and deprived rats cannot be explained by a modification of dopamine transporter expression measured by immunoautoradiography. Altogether, we conclude that maternal deprivation worsens inherent susceptibility to dependence, specifically for opiates, and therefore represents a highly valuable model to study environmentally triggered interindividual vulnerability to opiate addiction. Behavioural Pharmacology 17:715-724 (c) 2006 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
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