Influence of individual differences and chronic fluoxetine treatment on cocaine-seeking behavior in rats

Rationale: Clinical studies examining the efficacy of the selective seroton in reuptake inhibitor, fluoxetine. in decreasing craving and cocaine use ha ve been inconsistent. Objective: To understand better the effects of fluoxe tine treatment on incentive motivation for cocaine. the present study asses sed the effects of chronic fluoxetine treatment on cocaine-seeking behavior in rats following exposure to a cocaine self-administration environment or a cocaine priming injection, Methods: Rats were trained to press a lever f or a cocaine reinforcer (0.5 mg/kg per 0.1 ml, IV) or received yoked admini stration of saline. They were then withdrawn from this regimen and given 20 daily injections of saline or fluoxetine (3.0 mg/kg, IP). Twenty-four hour s after the last injection, the rats were placed in the self-administration environment and cocaine-seeking behavior (i.e., non-reinforced lever press ing) was measured for 90 min. Reinstatement of extinguished cocaine-seeking behavior was then measured for 60 min following a saline injection and for 90 min following a cocaine priming injection (15 mg/kg, IP). Results: Chro nic fluoxetine treatment attenuated cocaine-seeking behavior following expo sure to the self-administration environment in most rats (n=16), but enhanc ed cocaine-seeking behavior in two rats. Furthermore. the treatment failed to alter cocaine-seeking behavior following a cocaine priming injection. In terestingly, the amount of cocaine intake during self-administration traini ng correlated with cocaine-seeking behavior following the cocaine priming i njection. In fact, the priming injection reinstated cocaine-seeking behavio r only in rats with high, but not low, cocaine intake based on a median spl it. Conclusions: These results suggest that chronic fluoxetine treatment de creases motivation for cocaine when animals are in a cocaine-free state. Fu rthermore, individual differences in cocaine use are related to individual differences in sensitivity to incentive motivational effects of cocaine pri ming.