Levodopa reduces consumption of multiple classes of addictive substances in rats.

Dopamine transmission is implicated in aberrant behaviors associated with substance use disorders. Previous research revealed a causal link between excessive drug consumption and the loss of dopamine signaling to stimuli associated with psychostimulant use. The emerging change in dopamine signaling is specific to stimuli associated with the substance rather than the pharmacological properties of the drug itself.

A Commentary on Fasting of Nonclinical Research Animals.

This commentary discusses the implementation of fasting in nonclinical animal experimental subjects. The short-term removal of food from cages of experimental animals is in all respects innocuous. The term "stress" is ill-defined and the statutes and regulations governing animal research laboratories that exert their authority in the performance of their operations do so without substantive grounds to base compliance.

Cocaine Seeking And Taking Are Oppositely Regulated By Dopamine.

In some individuals, drug-associated cues subsume potent control of behavior, such as the elicitation of drug craving and automatized drug use. The intensity of this cue reactivity is highly predictive of relapse and other clinical outcomes in substance use disorders. It has been postulated that this cue reactivity is driven by augmentation of dopamine release over the course of chronic drug use.

The 5α-reductase inhibitor finasteride reduces opioid self-administration in animal models of opioid use disorder.

Opioid use disorder (OUD) has become a leading cause of death in the United States, yet current therapeutic strategies remain highly inadequate. To identify potential treatments for OUD, we screened a targeted selection of over 100 drugs using a recently developed opioid self-administration assay in zebrafish. This paradigm showed that finasteride, a steroidogenesis inhibitor approved for the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia and androgenetic alopecia, reduced self-administration of multiple opioids without affecting locomotion or feeding behavior.

The late positive potential and subjective arousal ratings evoked by negative images vary as a function of oxytocin receptor genotype SNP rs53576.

In the central nervous system the neuropeptide oxytocin mediates a range of behaviors related primarily to emotionality. One factor that influences oxytocinergic communication in the human brain and correlates with emotional behaviors is the single nucleotide polymorphism rs53576 on the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR). For example, variations in this OXTR genotype are related to parental, altruistic, and other prosocial behaviors.