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Drug abstinence: exploring animal models and behavioral treatment strategies

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Abstract

Background and rationale

An enormous amount of resources has been devoted to the development of pharmacotherapies for drug addiction, with relatively little or no long-term success reported. The current review argues that a successful drug addiction treatment program will likely be one that focuses on both the neural mechanisms and the environmental contingencies that mediate drug use. Further, because the neural mechanisms and environmental factors that support abstinence in humans are similar in laboratory animals, several animal models of abstinence and relapse have been developed. Thus, this review also compares the similarities in the mechanisms that lead to abstinence between animals and humans.

Objective

We evaluate the construct and face validities of the behavioral strategies that help support human drug abstinence. Further, we crucially evaluate animal models by assessing their validity and utility in addressing human behavior that leads to long-term abstinence.

Conclusions

We found that the behavioral strategies with the greatest likelihood of supporting long-term abstinence are those that are carried out in drug addicts’ natural setting(s) and while drug is readily available. Further, the behavioral strategies that may be most successful in supporting abstinence in humans are those that employ both positive consequences for abstinent related behavior and negative consequences for continued drug seeking or taking. Moreover, the animal models of abstinence and relapse that more closely represent the factors that support long-term abstinence in humans are those that limit their use of extinction or forced abstinence and present negative consequences for drug seeking and taking.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Bruce Brown and Dr. Bertram Ploog for critical comments on earlier versions of this paper.

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  1. Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, NY, 10016, USA

    Joshua A. Peck & Robert Ranaldi

  2. Psychology Department, Queens College, 65-30 Kissena Blvd, Flushing, New York, NY, 11367, USA

    Robert Ranaldi

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Peck, J.A., Ranaldi, R. Drug abstinence: exploring animal models and behavioral treatment strategies. Psychopharmacology 231, 2045–2058 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-014-3517-2

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