Drugs of abuse

Question 1

Olds and Milner 1954

Answer 1

Rewarding sites in the brain found to be medial fore brain bundle. The mesolimbic pathway from the VTA–>NAcc.
Rat intra-cranial self administration

Question 2

Dichiara and Imperto 1988

Answer 2

Drugs of abuse increase extracellular dopamine concentrations in the NAcc.
Kappa agonists decrease dopamine in the accumbens

Question 3

Termorshuizen et al., 2005

Answer 3

86% of users relapse to drug taking within 5 years after methadone treated abstinence

Question 4

Besancon 1993

Answer 4

Rapid transition from abstinence to compulsive drug use at start of relapse period

Question 5

Shalev et al., 2002

Answer 5

3 major stimuli for relapse:

• taking a small dose of the drug
• stress
• presented with a cue associated with drug taking

Question 6

Sanchis-segura et al., 2006

Answer 6

Self administration:
Rodents and non-human primates trained to self administer drugs of abuse.
Extinction-lever press not linked with the drug
Reinstatement- stress, cue induced or small dose of drug

Question 7

Koob, 2008

Answer 7

Negative affect hypothesis

Question 8

Bruchas et al., 2010

Answer 8

Dynorphin
D1–>cAMP–>CREB–>dynorphin
Kappa agonist

Question 9

Volkow et al., 1997

Answer 9

PET scanning for D2 receptors

1. Cocaine abusers have fewer D2 receptors in the striatum
2. Non-addicts given methylphenidate-those that liked it had lower D2 expression

Question 10

Dalley JW, 2007

Answer 10

Non-addict rats given cocaine.

Those that ‘liked’ it more had lower density of D2 receptors

Question 11

Nader et al., 2006

Answer 11

PET scanning in monkeys taking cocaine over 12 months- caused a decrease in D2 receptors

Question 12

Zhang et al., 2007

Answer 12

Nature argument-SNPs

Receptor functions normally but reduced expression levels

Question 13

Michael Nader

Answer 13

Putting animal in an unrewarding cage:

• isolation
• no toys
• boring food

Question 14

Chris Bailey

Answer 14

Non-definitive research- drumming group sessions appear to have the best outcomes

Question 15

Volkow et al., 2011

Answer 15

Addiction (compulsive drug use) is a learned behaviour

Question 16

Volkow et al., 2006

Answer 16

Imaging data. Video of someone snorting cocaine increases users craving for the drug. Correlated with increased dopamine levels in the NAcc.
vs neutral video (nature scenes)
Dopamine can be the predictor of reward

Question 17

DiCiaro et al., 1998

Answer 17

Repeated conditioned stimuli presentation with drug can subsequently elicit an electrochemical response when conditioned stimuli are presented alone.
Induce craving and potentially relapse

Question 18

Harris et al., 2004

Answer 18

CPP study that shows if you inhibit LTP in the VTA (with glutamate receptor antagonist or PKA inhibitors) then you can inhibit the learning of associative drug relates memories.
Rats–>blocked acqusition of morphine CPP when given into VTA immediately after morphine conditioning.

Question 19

Kantak et al., 2011

Answer 19

Rats associate cue with taking drug

Extinction phase- lever not connected with drug. Now learnt a new memory so lever press goes down.

Question 20

Kantak et al., 2011

Answer 20

Extinction training with a cognitive enhancer

Question 21

Kemp et al., 2007

Answer 21

Modulation of glutamate activity (for a cognitive enhancer). Although it is thought lots of sytemms need to be involved

Question 22

Olney 1994

Answer 22

NMDA binding site thought to be a good target for cognitive enhancers but NMDA agonists are thought to be neurotoxic

Question 23

Ungless et al., 2001

Answer 23

First paper to show drugs can cause LTP (only in vivo)

Question 24

Milekic et al., 2006

Answer 24

Suggested amnesic agents can be used to prevent memories from forming.
Reactivate memory with synaptic plasticity inhibited and it can inhibit the memory forming and erase the ones that have already happened

Question 25

Soeter and Kindt, 2015

Answer 25

spider fear given propranolol

Question 26

Brunet et al., 2008

Answer 26

PTSD script driven mental imagery of traumatic event

Question 27

Saal et al., 2003

Answer 27

Morphine, nicotine and ethanol increase AMPA receptors

Question 28

Sofuoglu at al., 2014

Answer 28

reviewed many different drugs including modafinil and minocycline for use as cognitive enhancers but as such these studies have only included small samples and were related to non-addictive samples.