Abstract
Each of the co-authors worked with Athina Markou, at different stages of our careers
and in different capacities, to develop, optimize, and use animal models of drug addiction
and, more generally, mental health disorders such as anxiety, depression, and schizophrenia.
Here, we briefly summarize some of our work with Athina, primarily involving the use
of the intracranial self-stimulation and intravenous drug self-administration procedures.
This work established that excessive consumption of addictive drugs can induce profound
dysfunction in brain reward circuits. Such drug-induced reward deficits are likely
to play a key role in precipitating the emergence of compulsive drug-seeking behaviors.
We also summarize findings suggesting that perturbations in glutamatergic transmission
contribute to brain reward deficits in drug-dependent animals and that metabotropic
glutamate receptors are potential targets for the development of novel medications
to facilitate long-term drug abstinence and prevention of relapse.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 21, 2018
Accepted:
February 14,
2018
Received in revised form:
February 14,
2018
Received:
November 17,
2017
Identification
Copyright
© 2018 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
