title: Cocaine choice procedures in animals, humans, and treatment-seekers: Can we bridge the divide?
abstract: Individuals with cocaine use disorder chronically self-administer cocaine to the detriment of other rewarding activities, a phenomenon best modeled in laboratory drug-choice procedures. These procedures can evaluate the reinforcing effects of drugs versus comparably valuable alternatives under multiple behavioral arrangements and schedules of reinforcement. However, assessing drug-choice in treatment-seeking or abstaining humans poses unique challenges: for ethical reasons, these populations typically cannot receive active drugs during research studies. Researchers have thus needed to rely on alternative approaches that approximate drug-choice behavior or assess more general forms of decision-making, but whether these alternatives have relevance to real-world drug-taking that can inform clinical trials is not well-understood. In this mini-review, we (A) summarize several important modulatory variables that influence cocaine choice in nonhuman animals and non-treatment seeking humans; (B) discuss some of the ethical considerations that could arise if treatment-seekers are enrolled in drug-choice studies; (C) consider the efficacy of alternative procedures, including non-drug-related decision-making and 'simulated' drug-choice (a choice is made, but no drug is administered) to approximate drug choice; and (D) suggest opportunities for new translational work to bridge the current divide between preclinical and clinical research.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States; Department of Neuroscience, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States. Electronic address: scott.moeller@mssm.edu.
authors.forename: Scott J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Moeller
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioral Science and Center on Drug and Alcohol Research, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Lexington, KY, United States; Department of Psychiatry, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Lexington, KY, United States; Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences, Lexington, KY, United States. Electronic address: william.stoops@uky.edu.
authors.forename: William W
authors.initials: WW
authors.lastname: Stoops
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000187:drug effects; D003042:Cocaine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D019970:Cocaine-Related Disorders / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D065786:Delay Discounting / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care
chemical_list: D003042:Cocaine
keywords: Choice behavior; Cocaine addiction; Cue reactivity; Decision-making; Delay discounting; Laboratory models; Self-administration