Peak Crack Sales = Finals Time

If the title didn't peak your interest I don't know what will. Welcome to another moment in science with Professor Goldfinch.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending one of the most interesting Lab Meetings my lab at Wayne State has had. Our Post-Doc (a person with a PhD doing a paid internship before they become a full fledged professor) began discussing a paper that looked into the effects of stress on drug rehabilitation. I found the results to be riveting and felt I needed to share.

The paper "cAMP Response Element-Binding Protein Is Required for Stress But Not Cocaine-Induced Reinstatement" (if you desire to see this paper please let me know and I will get you a copy) provided a very interesting look into the relationship between stress and former drug abuse. Essentially a series of mice were placed in a small 3 chambered cage with doors connecting the chambers. The left chamber had a diagonal bar pattern on the floor, the middle chamber had a basic floor, and the right chamber had a cross hatched floor. Why? Well the researchers used the unique floor patterns to get the mice to associate the rooms with different things. When the mice were injected with either saline (salt water) or cocaine they would be placed in a specific room. Saline injections corresponded to the diagonal room while the cross hatched room was associated with cocaine injections. After 7 days of injections the mice were placed in the middle chamber and given the option to choose a room. The mice that had been exposed to cocaine chose to return the cocaine room.

The next step involved simulating withdrawl. During this 7 day period the mice were only given injections of saline. When they tested the mice for preference of room they found that the mice no longer prefered the cocaine room to the saline room. Now comes the interesting part. A group of the cocaine mice were selected to perform the "Forced Swim Stress Test". Essentially the mice were placed, individually, in a column filled with water (high enough that they couldn't touch) and swim for about 6 minutes. Not an incredibly long time. This test helped simulate outside stress (stress not caused in the home). When the mice were again tested for their preference of rooms they showed a HUGE inclination towards the cocained room. The stress caused the mice to remeber their fix and desire the good feeling the drug provided. The mice that were not stressed did not return to the cocaine room.

What does this all mean? It means that there is evidence that shows (specifically for cocaine) stress can cause rehabilitation patients to relapse. Our lab has now decided to see if this same information holds true for alcohol.

Anyway, I thought that this was a very interesting scientific study and wanted to share. Just don't try to stop your vices before finals week.

"I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue!"