Environmental enrichment reduces heroin seeking following incubation of craving in both male and female rats.

Background: Contemporary treatments for heroin use disorder demonstrate only limited efficacy when the goals are long term abstinence and prevention of relapse. We have demonstrated that environmental enrichment (EE) reduces cue-induced heroin reinstatement in male rats. The present study is an attempt to extend the "anti-relapse" effects of EE to female rats and to periods where incubation of craving is hypothesized to occur.

Methods: This experiment implemented a 3-phase procedure. In Phase 1, male and female rats were trained to self-administer heroin for 15 days. Phase 2 consisted of a 3- or 15-day forced abstinence (FA) period. In Phase 3 half of the rats were placed into EE and the other half in non-EE housing and subsequently tested for responding in extinction (no heroin or cues) for 15 days followed by a cue-induced reinstatement test.

Results: We found that rats in the 15 days FA condition showed significantly enhanced drug seeking during extinction, irrespective of sex. We also found that EE significantly reduced this effect. During reinstatement, EE significantly reduced drug seeking in male and female rats and in both 3- and 15-day FA groups.

Conclusions: EE, with or without prolonged FA, effectively reduced heroin seeking in male and female rats. These findings indicate that EE can reduce drug-seeking in males and females and when putative incubation of craving (i.e., prolonged abstinence period) has occurred and suggest that it may aid in the development of future long-term behavioral treatments for individuals at risk for heroin relapse.