Withdrawal from chronic, intermittent access to a highly palatable food induces depressive-like behavior in compulsive eating rats.

The increased availability of highly palatable foods is a major contributing factor toward the development of compulsive eating in obesity and eating disorders. It has been proposed that compulsive eating may develop as a form of self-medication to alleviate the negative emotional state associated with withdrawal from highly palatable foods. This study was aimed at determining whether withdrawal from chronic, intermittent access to a highly palatable food was responsible for the emergence of depressive-like behavior.

The efficacy of mirtazapine in the treatment of cocaine dependence with comorbid depression.

Background: Prior findings concerning the use of mirtazapine in the treatment of a variety of substance use disorders and its antagonistic actions at the serotonin 5-HT(2A) receptor suggest that this drug may have efficacy in the treatment of cocaine dependence in the presence of a depressive disorder.

Methods: Depressed cocaine-dependent subjects received either mirtazapine (target dose 45 mg daily) or placebo for 12 weeks. Urine concentrations of benzoylecgonine and self-report were used to assess cocaine consumption.

Medial forebrain stimulation enhances intracranial nociception and attenuates morphine analgesia suggesting the existence of an endogenous opioid antagonist.

The purpose of this experiment was to test in the rat the hypotheses that activation of the brain reward system would attenuate the effects of intracranial nociceptive stimulation and would potentiate the antinociceptive effects of morphine. In this experiment pain (nociception) was generated by electrical stimulation of a brain pain pathway, the mesencephalic reticular formation (MRF) of the rat. Reward pathway stimulation was to the medial forebrain bundle at the level of the lateral hypothalamus (MFB-LH).

Deep brain stimulation of the nucleus accumbens reduces ethanol consumption in rats.

Recent studies have shown that deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) has an inhibitory effect on drug-seeking behaviors including reinstatement responding for cocaine. The objective of the present study was to expand on these findings by assessing the effects of DBS on behaviors related to alcohol consumption. The specific aim of this study was to determine whether DBS delivered to either the shell or core of the NAcc would reduce ETOH intake in rats using a two-bottle choice limited access procedure.