Cocaine

Review of: Cocaine: Global Histories by Paul Gootenberg

by Brian Cowan

The Economic History Review, New Series, Vol. 53, No. 3 (Aug., 2000), pp. 613-614

Despite the prominence of illicit drugs both in contemporary popular consciousness and in the social agenda of modern... more Despite the prominence of illicit drugs both in contemporary popular consciousness and in the social agenda of modern states, the history of drugs remains an underdeveloped field. This collection of essays on the history of cocaine in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries offers a promising step in advancing our understanding of the ways in which the new drug quickly became the focus of attention from international trading organizations (both legal and illicit), state centred prohibitionary regimes, and drug consumers alike.

Prevalent Cocaine Use and Myocardial Infarction

by Stella Aslibekyan

Sensitization of rapid dopamine signaling in the nucleus accumbens core and shell after repeated cocaine in rats

by Jeremy Ford

FACS Identifies Unique Cocaine-Induced Gene Regulation in Selectively Activated Adult Striatal Neurons

by Sam Golden

Context‐specific modulation of cocaine‐induced locomotor sensitization and ERK and CREB phosphorylation in the rat nucleus accumbens

by Sam Golden

Targeted disruption of cocaine-activated nucleus accumbens neurons prevents context-specific sensitization

by Sam Golden

A cocaine cue acts as an incentive stimulus in some but not others: implications for addiction

by Benjamin Thomas Saunders

BACKGROUND: In addicts drug cues attract attention, elicit approach, and motivate drug-seeking and drug-taking... more BACKGROUND: In addicts drug cues attract attention, elicit approach, and motivate drug-seeking and drug-taking behavior, and addicts find it difficult to resist such cues. In preclinical studies we have found, however, that food cues acquire incentive motivational properties only in a subset of individuals. For example, a food cue becomes attractive, eliciting approach and engagement with it, and acts as an effective conditional reinforcer in some rats but not others. We asked, therefore, whether rats that have a propensity to attribute incentive salience to a food cue are the same ones that attribute incentive value to a drug (cocaine) cue. METHODS: We first used a Pavlovian conditioned approach procedure to determine which individual rats attributed incentive salience to a food cue. A second cue was then associated with the IV self-administration of cocaine. Later, the ability of the cocaine cue to maintain self-administration behavior and to reinstate self-administration after extinction was assessed. RESULTS: We report that in individuals that had a propensity to attribute incentive salience to a food cue, a cocaine cue spurred motivation to take drugs (its removal greatly diminished self-administration) and reinstated robust drug-seeking after extinction. However, in those individuals that failed to attribute incentive salience to a food cue, the cocaine cue was relatively devoid of incentive motivational properties. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that it is possible to determine, before any drug experience, which individuals will most likely have difficulty resisting drug cues, a trait that might confer susceptibility to addiction.

Individual variation in the motivational properties of cocaine

by Benjamin Thomas Saunders

Cues in the environment associated with drug use draw the attention of addicts, elicit approach, and motivate... more Cues in the environment associated with drug use draw the attention of addicts, elicit approach, and motivate drug-seeking and drug-taking behavior, making abstinence difficult. However, preclinical studies have identified large individual differences in the extent to which reward cues acquire these incentive motivational properties. For example, only in some rats does a spatially discrete food cue become attractive, eliciting approach and engagement with it, and acts as an effective conditioned reinforcer. Moreover, a discrete cocaine cue also acquires greater motivational control over behavior in rats prone to attribute incentive salience to a food cue. In this study, we asked whether there is similar individual variation in the extent to which interoceptive cues produced by cocaine itself instigate cocaine-seeking behavior. After quantifying individual variation in the propensity to attribute incentive salience to a food cue, rats were trained to self-administer cocaine in the absence of an explicit conditional stimulus. We then assessed motivation for cocaine by: (1) performance on a progressive ratio schedule, and (2) the degree to which a cocaine 'prime' reinstated cocaine-seeking following extinction of self-administration behavior. We found that rats prone to attribute incentive salience to a food cue worked harder for cocaine, and showed more robust cocaine-induced reinstatement. We conclude that there is considerable individual variation in the motivational properties of cocaine itself, and this can be predicted by the propensity to attribute incentive salience to reward cues.