A comparison of therapies for the treatment of drug cues: counterconditioning vs. extinction in male rats

Abstract

Although extinction has been used as a treatment to reduce the power of drug cues, a better method is needed. Research with traditional reinforcers has shown that counterconditioning--pairing an appetitive cue with an aversive stimulus--can suppress cue-controlled behavior. The present experiment compared the counterconditioning and extinction of cocaine cues. Male rats were first trained to self-administer cocaine during a light cue. In the second phase, the light was paired with footshock in the counterconditioning group. The extinction group was treated similarly, except light presentations did not end in footshock. Counterconditioning suppressed cocaine seeking to a greater extent than extinction while the counterconditioning treatment was actively administered. On a subsequent stimulus compounding test, where footshock was discontinued and the light was presented simultaneously with an untreated cocaine cue (a tone), suppressive effects of counterconditioning were evident during the early portion of the test but not during later trials. Overall, results of the present experiment suggest that counterconditioning produces only temporarily suppressive effects on cue-controlled cocaine seeking. Methods for directly weakening the cue-drug association (e.g., "deepened extinction") may prove to be more useful drug cue treatments.

Figure 1

Mean (± SEM) response rates to tone (black bars) and to light (gray bars) on the final Phase 1 cocaine self-administration session for the Extinction and Counterconditioning Groups.

Figure 2

Mean (± SEM) response rates to light on two-trial blocks over the 6 sessions of Phase 2 for the Extinction group (filled circles) and the Counterconditioning group (open squares). There were 10 trials (5 two-trial blocks) per session.

Figure 3

Mean (± SEM) response rates to the tone-plus-light compound (TL; left panel), light alone (center panel), and tone alone (right panel) on two-trial blocks of the stimulus compounding test for the Extinction Group (black bars) and the Counterconditioning Group (white bars).