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Contextual Factors in the Reinforcing Effects of Drugs |
Monday, May 27, 2013 |
3:00 PM–3:50 PM |
Auditorium Room 1 (Convention Center) |
Area: BPH; Domain: Basic Research |
Instruction Level: Basic |
CE Instructor: Jack Bergman, Ph.D. |
Chair: Paul L. Soto (Johns Hopkins University) |
JACK BERGMAN (Harvard Medical School-McLean Hospital) |
Dr. Jack Bergman received his initial training in behavioral pharmacology in the laboratories of C. R. Schuster and C. E. Johanson at the University of Chicago (Ph.D. 1981). His dissertation research examined the reinforcing effects of the benzodiazepine diazepam in monkeys and, as well, the issue of tolerance to its anti-suppressant actions. Dr. Bergman continued research as a postdoctoral fellow with W. H. Morse in the Psychobiology Laboratory at Harvard Medical School, where he studied behavioral and physiological effects of novel opioids in monkeys and began long-term studies of dopaminergic mechanisms in the reinforcing and other behavioral effects of psychomotor stimulant drugs. Dr. Bergman moved to the New England Primate Research Center where, with Roger Spealman, he continued those studies and, as well, undertook work to delineate the behavioral effects of new, atypical antipsychotic drugs. After moving to McLean Hospital in 1996, Dr. Bergman continued studies of psychomotor stimulant abuse liability including the evaluation of candidate medications, and also began to examine the behavioral effects of THC and other CB1 agonists. He also refined procedures using concurrent schedules of reinforcement to better evaluate the reinforcing strength of self-administered drugs. Most recently, Dr. Bergman's interests in improving behavioral methodologies have included the development of novel operant-based means for studying analgesic drugs. |
Abstract: Early studies showing that drugs that people take illicitly can maintain IV self-administration in laboratory animals have led to a continuing role for such studies to measure abuse potential of existing and new drugs and, as well, continuing interest in understanding the multiple determinants of the reinforcing effects of drugs and how to measure them. Laboratory studies have shown that, in addition to subject-related and drug-related variables, contextual factors can qualitatively and/or quantitatively influence drug-maintained behavior. Among these factors are the schedule of availability, drug-taking history, and reinforcement options. Their influence will be reviewed with examples of differences in the dose-related effects of selected drugs under varying schedule conditions, the role pharmacological history can play in the expression of a drug's reinforcing effects, and the utility of using the availability of an alternative reinforcer under concurrent schedule conditions to study drug-maintained and drug-seeking behavior. |
Target Audience: The target audience is researchers and practitioners interested in substance abuse and current laboratory procedures for assessing abuse liability of drugs. |
Learning Objectives: 1. Identify procedures used for measuring the reinforcing strength of abused drugs 2. Identify different pharmacotherapeutic approaches to drug abuse (agonist substitution, antagonist, other) 3. Identify the major neurotransmitter system and its receptors involved in stimulant abuse |
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