CHRONIC SOCIAL STRESS CONDITIONS DIFFERENTIALLY MODIFY VULNERABILITY TO AMPHETAMINE SELF-ADMINISTRATION

Using social instability and cohabitation with females as chronic stre ss, we observed that neuroendocrine systems were differentially activa ted according to the experimental design. We show here that amphetamin e self-administration, a paradigm to study the reinforcing effects of psychostimulants, is a!io differentially affected by these conditions. Coexistence with females increases amphetamine self-administration an d this effect is reduced when social instability is superimposed. On t he other hand, locomotor response to amphetamine is not modified by ei ther social factor, suggesting a specific involvement of a subset of d opaminergic neurons.