Animal Models of Drug Dependence: Motivational Perspective

Abstract

The thesis of this chapter is that animal models of motivational dependence provide a heuristic framework for understanding a key, and previously neglected, source of reinforcement associated with addiction. An interactive, iterative process can be established whereby existing medications that interact with the withdrawal/ negative affect stage of the addiction cycle would be used to validate and improve animal and human laboratory models and then predict viable candidates for novel medications. Medications currently on the market for the treatment of addiction have provided not only a window on the opportunities for facilitating treatment but also are forming a means for evaluating future medications development. A combination of excellent and validated animal models of addiction and an enormous surge in understanding through basic research of the neurocircuits and neuropharmacological mechanisms involved in the neuroadaptative changes that account for the transition to dependence and the vulnerability to relapse have provided numerous viable targets for future medications development. Development of human laboratory studies for these stages of the addiction cycle is critical and will allow dynamic iterative feedback to and from the animal models key to the identification of novel candidates for treatment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)