Topic: forced abstinence

Pre-clinical studies on drug addiction and relapse often overlooked volitional social interactions, which are of critical importance in human addiction. Recently, it has been demonstrated that social choice-based voluntary abstinence in rats attenuates the emergence of incubation of methamphetamine (Meth) craving relative to rats subjected to a forced abstinence. In the current study we investigated the molecular mechanisms by which social choice-based voluntary abstinence prevents the incubation of craving. An important mechanism driving cue-induced craving from psychostimulants in forced abs

Drug addiction is characterized by long-lasting risk of relapse even after long abstinence periods. Historically, addiction research mainly focused on males, generalizing the findings to females. However, clinical and preclinical studies revealed sex differences in cocaine relapse. Indeed, our previous study revealed a higher cue-induced cocaine seeking in female than male rats, an effect dependent on the hormonal cycle. Females were more vulnerable to cue-induced cocaine seeking during the estrus phase characterized by low progesterone levels, compared to females in non-estrus phase with high