RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Drug Wanting: Behavioral Sensitization and Relapse to Drug-Seeking Behavior
JF Pharmacological Reviews
JO Pharmacol Rev
FD American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics
SP 348
OP 365
DO 10.1124/pr.109.001933
VO 63
IS 2
A1 Jeffery D. Steketee
A1 Peter W. Kalivas
A2 David R. Sibley
YR 2011
UL http://pharmrev.aspetjournals.org/content/63/2/348.abstract
AB Repeated exposure to drugs of abuse enhances the motor-stimulant response to these drugs, a phenomenon termed behavioral sensitization. Animals that are extinguished from self-administration training readily relapse to drug, conditioned cue, or stress priming. The involvement of sensitization in reinstated drug-seeking behavior remains controversial. This review describes sensitization and reinstated drug seeking as behavioral events, and the neural circuitry, neurochemistry, and neuropharmacology underlying both behavioral models will be described, compared, and contrasted. It seems that although sensitization and reinstatement involve overlapping circuitry and neurotransmitter and receptor systems, the role of sensitization in reinstatement remains ill-defined. Nevertheless, it is argued that sensitization remains a useful model for determining the neural basis of addiction, and an example is provided in which data from sensitization studies led to potential pharmacotherapies that have been tested in animal models of relapse and in human addicts.