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Conditioning and opiate withdrawal

Nature volume 405, pages 1013–1014 (2000)Cite this article

The amygdala links neutral stimuli with the agony of overcoming drug addiction.

Abstract

The habitual behaviour of many opiate addicts means that the aversive symptoms of drug withdrawal are frequently experienced in specific environments1. Stimuli in these environments acquire some of the negative affective properties of opiate withdrawal through pavlovian conditioning, and subsequent exposure to these stimuli alone can then elicit a conditioned withdrawal response that is often associated with drug craving, drug seeking, and relapse back to compulsive drug use after a long abstinence1,2. We show here that selective excitotoxic lesions of the basolateral amygdala, part of the limbic forebrain, prevent the development of conditioned withdrawal in morphine-dependent rats.

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Figure 1: Basolateral amygdala lesions significantly attenuate the conditioned withdrawal produced by a tone/light conditioned stimulus (CS) paired with naloxone during four conditioning trials.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anesthesiology, VAMC 125, UC San Diego School of Medicine and San Diego VA Medical Center, 3350 La Jolla Village Drive, San Diego, 92161-5085, California , USA

    G. Schulteis & A. C. Morse

  2. Department of Neuropharmacology, CVN-7 Scripps Research Institute, 10550 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, 92037, California, USA

    G. Schulteis, S. H. Ahmed, A. C. Morse & G. F. Koob

  3. Department of Experimental Psychology University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge , CB2 3EB, UK

    B. J. Everitt

Authors
  1. G. Schulteis
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  2. S. H. Ahmed
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  3. A. C. Morse
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  4. G. F. Koob
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  5. B. J. Everitt
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Correspondence to B. J. Everitt.

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Schulteis, G., Ahmed, S., Morse, A. et al. Conditioning and opiate withdrawal. Nature 405, 1013–1014 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35016630

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