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Peer influences on drug self-administration: Social facilitation and social inhibition of cocaine intake in male rats

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Abstract

Rationale

One problem facing animal models of intravenous drug self-administration, particularly those examining social manipulations, is that subjects must be removed from the home environment and separated from cagemates during testing. This represents a limitation of animal models because it fails to capture the complex social environments in which drug use often occur.

Objectives

The aim of this study was to examine intravenous cocaine self-administration in isolated and socially housed rats, with the caveat that the socially housed subjects lived together 24 h/day, including during daily self-administration sessions. As a secondary aim, the study examined the impact of a companion that also self-administered cocaine versus a companion without access to cocaine.

Methods

Male rats were obtained at weaning and reared in isolated or pair-housed conditions for 6 weeks. Rats were then implanted with intravenous catheters and transferred to custom-built operant conditioning chambers that served as home cages for the remainder of the study. For some socially housed subjects, both rats had simultaneous access to cocaine; for others, only one rat of the pair had access to cocaine.

Results

Cocaine self-administration was facilitated in socially housed rats if both members of the pair had access to cocaine; however, cocaine self-administration was inhibited if only one rat of the pair had access to cocaine.

Conclusions

These data indicate that the self-administration behavior of a peer, not merely the presence of a peer, determines whether cocaine self-administration is facilitated or inhibited by social contact.

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Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Dr. David Roberts for valuable help in designing and pilot testing the operant conditioning chambers, Kimberly Lang for excellent technical assistance, Chris van Rooyen for instrumentation support, Amy Sullivan for expert animal care and maintenance, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse for supplying the study drug.

Conflict of interest

The author reports no conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Program in Neuroscience, Davidson College, Box 7037, Davidson, NC, 28035-7037, USA

    Mark A. Smith

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  1. Mark A. Smith
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mark A. Smith.

Additional information

This study was supported by the National Institutes of Health (DA14255, DA027485).

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Smith, M.A. Peer influences on drug self-administration: Social facilitation and social inhibition of cocaine intake in male rats. Psychopharmacology 224, 81–90 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-012-2737-6

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