Stress, larger home affect cocaine use

phr

phr

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Stress, larger home affect cocaine use
United Press International
4.8.08


WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., April 8 (UPI) -- Increased stress -- or conversely nicer environments -- may affect the amount of cocaine use, U.S. researchers suggest.

Wake Forest University School of Medicine researchers built on their findings that monkeys naturally stratify and lower strata monkeys are more likely to self-administer cocaine.

Michael Nader and colleagues exposed 24 cynomolgus macaques, a primate native to Southeast Asia -- to larger-than-normal cages and the stress of being placed next to another social group and gave them the choice of intravenous cocaine or food pellets.

The stress and the nicer home life reduced the drug response of all the animals, but the detrimental affect of the stress -- more drug intake, less food -- was more prominent in the subordinate monkeys.

"This is very significant, first, it is a result that could be directly applied to the human situation," Nader said in a statement. "It suggests that a better environment could alleviate at least some of the risk that individuals will turn to drugs. Secondly, we are talking about just a slightly improved living condition. Imagine what the effect could be with higher quality enrichment, such as interesting activities."

Nader presented the findings at the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics at the Experimental Biology 2008 scientific conference in San Diego.

Link!
 
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funny he gave it in san diego, one of the nicest counties in cali. i agree with him, but i dont think lab tests were needed to reach this conclusion. i dare a coastal citizen to move inland for one week with out getting high or killing themselves from bordem. There is just significantly less to do in noncoastal cities.
 
Jaded though I am, somehow I am still shocked to find out that some idiot "researcher" is giving coke to monkeys at this point in time. I thought we could safely look upon those bizarre "experiments" where non-human primates are subjected to all manner of drug administration - while ample empirical data on voluntary drug use by actual humans are sitting there, free for the taking - with the same disgust and non-nostalgia as we look back at Edison's horrific electrocution of an elephant in NYC to "prove" that DC current was dangerous.

Turns out that some pathetic, grant-chasing, washed-out nobody of a wannabe academic is still beating that broken old drum. Makes one want to put up a huge billboard outside their office: "get a fucking clue!"

Increases in stress positively correlate with self-administration of recreational drugs? Now there's a research conclusion worthy of a Nobel. :p What's next? Bleeding-edge research to "discover" that MDMA makes folks feel good?

Peace,

Fausty
 
Im sure this experiment would have been done before somewhere. If not exactly like this one then very similar. it might just be me but giving monkeys drugs doesnt translate directly to humans.
"Its not cruelty if you inject enough cocaine"
 
Dr.DOB said:
i think you are thinking about alternating current
Click to expand...

You are absolutely right. Edison was on the wrong end of this one, as he had promoted DC due to its (supposed) increased safety versus AC. So Topsy was electrocuted by AC current - though of course one could accomplish the same with enough DC juice as well.

Thanks for the correction.

Peace,

Fausty
 
I remember when I was in the 8th grade, this former researcher from one of the "major tobacco companies" came to my school to talk. He said he gave various drugs to different animals and every single one of them became addicted to whatever the substance was, except for nicotine. He claimed that no animal would push the button that administered nicotine.

He also claimed to invent a cigarette that was non addictive and did not cause cancer. I still haven't figured out that one either.

I've always wondered if he was full of shit and just some random ass person that my school hired to scare 13 year olds about smoking. I guess he was telling us that the other drugs were alright just as long as we didn't touch any form of nicotine because even the lab monkeys and rats wouldn't do it.
 
So what is this experiment saying about monkeys that live in big houses again?
 
Monkeys do not speak for humans .

That's why we're evolved, and they're not.

Nuff said on any monkey drug studies 8)
 
I just want to know how much of that pure, pharmaceutical-quality cocaine got to the monkeys and how much of it went home with the lab techs whose job it was to shoot them up.
 
^^^^ Agreed. At the very least I would say the independent variable was stepped on once or twice... ;)
 
wiggi said:
I remember when I was in the 8th grade, this former researcher from one of the "major tobacco companies" came to my school to talk. He said he gave various drugs to different animals and every single one of them became addicted to whatever the substance was, except for nicotine. He claimed that no animal would push the button that administered nicotine.
Click to expand...

Sorta unrelated comment, but there's been all manner of "animal studies" done on substance abuse that claim to demonstrate levels of addictiveness. Let's look at the setup:

Take a sentient being, could be a chimp or a rat or any other social mammal. Lock him or her in a tiny cage. No socialization, no activities, nothing to do. Totally sterile environment. Nothing.

Put a lever there that allows for self-administration of some substance. Add in some form of clever trick whereby self-administration means they have to do without something else (usually food).

Guess what? These imprisoned critters tap that damned lever over, and over. . . and over. Addiction!

Anyone else see the problem here? Turns out some more empathetic researchers started wondering if it wasn't the imprisonment itself that was driving much of this "addictive" behavior. After all, most anyone locked in a tiny, sterile cage is going to be looking for any kind of mental release. Some of this new research is summarized in Dr. Siegel's excellent Intoxication. Provide chimps with the opportunity to self-administer in a more healthy, social, representative environment and very few of them overdo it. Sound familiar?

Ask anyone who has done time in solitary confinement if they'd take a bit of heroin to help the days slip by. . .

Peace,

Fausty
 
^^^^ In other words, the independent variable is actually isolation.

Not cocaine.

And that maybe we can more accurately look to the real world experiments humans do on themselves to predict what monkeys might do in the lab? ;)
 
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