Overdose fatalities involving cocaine continue to rise with over 5.3 million cocaine users reported in the United States in 2022. The abuse liability of cocaine is reliant upon inhibition of dopamine (DA) reuptake and consequent increase in DA efflux in meso-corticolimbic circuitry that controls reward and motivation. Cocaine also increases serotonin (5-HT) efflux which is integral in cocaine...
Opioid misuse and opioid-involved overdose deaths are a massive public health problem involving the intertwined misuse of prescription opioids for pain management with the emergence of extremely potent fentanyl derivatives, sold as standalone products or adulterants in counterfeit prescription opioids or heroin. The incidence of repeated opioid overdose events indicates a problematic use...
A record ~100,000 fatalities due to drug overdoses was reported in the U.S. for the twelve months preceding April 2021. Opioids account for most deaths, and recurrent opioid use may lead to the development of opioid use disorder (OUD), a debilitating chronic disorder. Current medication‐assisted OUD treatment (e.g., buprenorphine) mitigates withdrawal, reduces mortality, and reduces intake of...
The hallucinogens are a class of psychoactive drugs, either synthetic or plant products, that produce auditory and/or visual hallucinations as well as thought, mood, and perceptual changes. Depending on dosage, expectation (set), and environment (setting), they also can induce euphoria and a state similar to a transcendental experience. These hallucinations can be present as part of a delirium...
The hallucinogen d-lysergic acid diethylamide (d-LSD) evokes dramatic somatic and psychological effects. In order to analyze the neural activation induced by this unique psychoactive drug, we tested the hypothesis that expression of the immediate-early gene product c-Fos is induced in specific regions of the rat forebrain by a relatively low, behaviorally active, dose of d-LSD (0.16 mg/kg,...
The neuropharmacological mechanisms underlying the behavioral effects of d-lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) were assessed by comparing the discriminative stimulus properties of LSD with those of agonists and antagonists that act selectively at putative serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine; 5-HT) receptor subtypes (5-HT1 and 5-HT2). Male Sprague-Dawley rats (N = 23) were trained to discriminate LSD...