Abstract
Rationale
Adverse early life experiences are risk factors for drug abuse and addiction. Changes in brain opioid systems have been demonstrated in response to neonatal visceral pain (NVP), but the impact of these changes on abuse-related effects of morphine are unknown. The NVP procedure used models chronic visceral hyperalgesia persisting across development.
Objectives
Intravenous self-administration, drug discrimination, and locomotor activity were used to compare the abuse-related effects of morphine in NVP and control rats.
Methods
Rats self-administered 0.3 mg/kg/inj morphine under an FR1 schedule, and dose–effect functions for morphine were then established. Separate rats were trained to discriminate 3.2 mg/kg morphine from saline under an FR20 schedule, and morphine dose–effect functions were then determined in the absence and presence of 0.1 mg/kg naltrexone. A third group of rats was tested with a range of morphine doses in an assay of locomotor activity, then injected daily with 10 mg/kg morphine to assess locomotor sensitization.
Results
NVP rats self-administered more morphine than controls at reinforcing doses. Discriminative stimulus effects of morphine were similar between groups, but in the presence of naltrexone, the ED50 for morphine was more than 12× greater in control rats than in NVP animals. Morphine did not stimulate locomotor activity at any tested dose in NVP rats, although significant effects were observed in controls. Finally, significant locomotor sensitization was observed only in NVP rats.
Conclusions
NVP-induced changes in brain opioid systems have persistent pharmacological consequences into adulthood and may increase sensitivity to abuse-related effects of opioids across development.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ahmed SH, Cador M (2006) Dissociation of psychomotor sensitization from compulsive cocaine consumption. Neuropsychopharmacol Off Publ Am Coll Neuropsychopharmacol 31:563–571
Al-Chaer ED, Kawasaki M, Pasricha PJ (2000) A new model of chronic visceral hypersensitivity in adult rats induced by colon irritation during postnatal development. Gastroenterology 119:1276–1285
Anand KJ (1998) Clinical importance of pain and stress in preterm neonates. Biol Neonate 73:1–9
Bhutta AT, Rovnaghi C, Simpson PM, Gossett JM, Scalzo FM, Anand KJ (2001) Interactions of inflammatory pain and morphine in infant rats: long-term behavioral effects. Physiol Behav 73:51–58
De Jonckheere J, Rakza T, Logier R, Jeanne M, Jounwaz R, Storme L (2011) Heart rate variability analysis for newborn infants prolonged pain assessment. Conference proceedings: Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Conference 2011: 7747-50
Ewing Corcoran SB, Howell LL (2010) Impact of early life stress on the reinforcing and behavioral-stimulant effects of psychostimulants in rhesus monkeys. Behav Pharmacol 21:69–76
Ferguson AR, Patton BC, Bopp AC, Meagher MW, Grau JW (2004) Brief exposure to a mild stressor enhances morphine-conditioned place preference in male rats. Psychopharmacology 175:47–52
Ferrario CR, Gorny G, Crombag HS, Li Y, Kolb B, Robinson TE (2005) Neural and behavioral plasticity associated with the transition from controlled to escalated cocaine use. Biol Psychiatry 58:751–759
Goeders NE (2002) Stress and cocaine addiction. J Pharmacol Exp Ther 301:785–789
Goeders NE, Guerin GF (1994) Non-contingent electric footshock facilitates the acquisition of intravenous cocaine self-administration in rats. Psychopharmacology 114:63–70
Goeders NE, Guerin GF (1996) Effects of surgical and pharmacological adrenalectomy on the initiation and maintenance of intravenous cocaine self-administration in rats. Brain Res 722:145–152
Grunau RE, Holsti L, Haley DW, Oberlander T, Weinberg J, Solimano A, Whitfield MF, Fitzgerald C, Yu W (2005) Neonatal procedural pain exposure predicts lower cortisol and behavioral reactivity in preterm infants in the NICU. Pain 113:293–300
Hall FS, Wilkinson LS, Humby T, Robbins TW (1999) Maternal deprivation of neonatal rats produces enduring changes in dopamine function. Synapse 32:37–43
Huang S, Trapido E, Fleming L, Arheart K, Crandall L, French M, Malcolm S, Prado G (2011) The long-term effects of childhood maltreatment experiences on subsequent illicit drug use and drug-related problems in young adulthood. Addict Behav 36:95–102
Kehoe P, Shoemaker WJ, Triano L, Hoffman J, Arons C (1996) Repeated isolation in the neonatal rat produces alterations in behavior and ventral striatal dopamine release in the juvenile after amphetamine challenge. Behav Neurosci 110:1435–1444
Knackstedt LA, Kalivas PW (2007) Extended access to cocaine self-administration enhances drug-primed reinstatement but not behavioral sensitization. J Pharmacol Exp Ther 322:1103–1109
Kosten TA, Miserendino MJ, Kehoe P (2000) Enhanced acquisition of cocaine self-administration in adult rats with neonatal isolation stress experience. Brain Res 875:44–50
Laprairie JL, Murphy AZ (2009) Neonatal injury alters adult pain sensitivity by increasing opioid tone in the periaqueductal gray. Front Behav Neurosci 3:31
Lenoir M, Ahmed SH (2008) Supply of a nondrug substitute reduces escalated heroin consumption. Neuropsychopharmacol Off Publ Am Coll Neuropsychopharmacol 33:2272–2282
Li T, Du J, Yu S, Jiang H, Fu Y, Wang D, Sun H, Chen H, Zhao M (2012) Pathways to age of onset of heroin use: a structural model approach exploring the relationship of the COMT gene, impulsivity and childhood trauma. PLoS One 7:e48735
Lidow MS (2002) Long-term effects of neonatal pain on nociceptive systems. Pain 99:377–383
Lyness WH, Smith FL, Heavner JE, Iacono CU, Garvin RD (1989) Morphine self-administration in the rat during adjuvant-induced arthritis. Life Sci 45:2217–2224
Martin CM, Saleeby LG (2007) All pain is not the same: an overview of neuropathic pain in the elderly. Consult Pharm J Am Soc Consult Pharm 22:283–294
Michaels CC, Holtzman SG (2008) Early postnatal stress alters place conditioning to both mu- and kappa-opioid agonists. J Pharmacol Exp Ther 325:313–318
Ness TJ, Lewis-Sides A, Castroman P (2001) Characterization of pressor and visceromotor reflex responses to bladder distention in rats: sources of variability and effect of analgesics. J Urol 165:968–974
Qiu J (2006) Infant pain: does it hurt? Nature 444:143–145
Ren Y, Zou X, Fang L, Lin Q (2005) Sympathetic modulation of activity in Adelta- and C-primary nociceptive afferents after intradermal injection of capsaicin in rats. J Neurophysiol 93:365–377
Shimada C, Kurumiya S, Noguchi Y, Umemoto M (1990) The effect of neonatal exposure to chronic footshock on pain-responsiveness and sensitivity to morphine after maturation in the rat. Behav Brain Res 36:105–111
Simons SH, van Dijk M, Anand KS, Roofthooft D, van Lingen RA, Tibboel D (2003) Do we still hurt newborn babies? A prospective study of procedural pain and analgesia in neonates. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 157:1058–1064
Sinha R (2001) How does stress increase risk of drug abuse and relapse? Psychopharmacology 158:343–359
Thomas MB, Hu M, Lee TM, Bhatnagar S, Becker JB (2009) Sex-specific susceptibility to cocaine in rats with a history of prenatal stress. Physiol Behav 97:270–277
Walker JR, Chen SA, Moffitt H, Inturrisi CE, Koob GF (2003) Chronic opioid exposure produces increased heroin self-administration in rats. Pharmacol Biochem Behav 75:349–354
Wang JY, Zhang HT, Han JS, Chang JY, Woodward DJ, Luo F (2004) Differential modulation of nociceptive neural responses in medial and lateral pain pathways by peripheral electrical stimulation: a multichannel recording study. Brain Res 1014:197–208
Wang J, Gu C, Al-Chaer ED (2008) Altered behavior and digestive outcomes in adult male rats primed with minimal colon pain as neonates. Behav Brain Funct: BBF 4:28
White AG, Birnbaum HG, Mareva MN, Daher M, Vallow S, Schein J, Katz N (2005a) Direct costs of opioid abuse in an insured population in the United States. J Manag Care Pharm: JMCP 11:469–479
White AG, Birnbaum HG, Mareva MN, Henckler AE, Grossman P, Mallett DA (2005b) Economic burden of illness for employees with painful conditions. J Occup Environ Med Am Coll Occup Environ Med 47:884–892
Woller SA, Moreno GL, Hart N, Wellman PJ, Grau JW, Hook MA (2012) Analgesia or addiction?: implications for morphine use after spinal cord injury. J Neurotrauma 29:1650–1662
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Norwood, A.P., Al-Chaer, E.D. & Fantegrossi, W.E. Predisposing effects of neonatal visceral pain on abuse-related effects of morphine in adult male Sprague Dawley rats. Psychopharmacology 231, 4281–4289 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-014-3574-6
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-014-3574-6