EFFECTS OF SHORT-TERM AND LONG-TERM WITHDRAWAL FROM GESTATIONAL COCAINE TREATMENT ON MATERNAL-BEHAVIOR AND AGGRESSION IN SPRAGUE-DAWLEY RATS

Pregnant rats were treated with 30 mg/kg per day cocaine or normal sal ine either throughout gestation (GD 1-20, cocaine and saline withdrawa l) or throughout gestation and continuing into lactation for 10 days p ostpartum (cocaine and saline nonwithdrawal). All cocaine-treated dams exhibited more disruptions in the onset of maternal behavior (retriev al, licking, crouching) and were more aggressive (threats and attacks) towards an intruder on postpartum day 6 than saline-treated dams, The re were no significant differences in these behaviors between withdraw n and nonwithdrawn cocaine-treated dams. These findings indicate that changes in maternal behavior following chronic moderate cocaine treatm ent are not simply the result of withdrawal from cocaine treatment fol lowing gestation and that other possible mechanisms should be examined .