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Dissociation between cocaine-primed craving and sensitization

Posted by Ulysse on 31 Dec 2010 at 18:24 GMT

This is an interesting study. It is regrettable, however, that the authors omitted to cite previous research in rats showing the same behavioral dissociation between cocaine-primed craving-like behavior and sensitization (e.g., Ahmed and Cador 2006).

Competing interests declared: I co-authored the initial article that was not cited.

RE: Dissociation between cocaine-primed craving and sensitization

RMBrown replied to Ulysse on 04 Jan 2011 at 05:21 GMT

I agree it is regrettable. In actual fact, the original submission contained significant discussion of this interesting line of research as I thought it highly relevant to the findings of this study. Indeed, the specific article you mention was cited, along with others (e.g. Lenoir and Ahmed 2007; Ahmed et al., 2002; Vanderschuren and Everitt, 2004). During the revision process the article was heavily truncated and the final version did not include this section of the discussion (regrettably). The findings from Ahmed and Cador (2006) and Lenoir and Ahmed (2007) suggest that responding to drug priming is specific to compulsive drug use and dissociable from drug reward and sensitization. The findings of the present study provide new evidence to support this hypothesis, using a different model of reinstatement – the CPP paradigm.

Competing interests declared: I am an author of the original article