A main challenge in addiction treatment is high relapse rates during abstinence. This clinical scenario has traditionally been studied using preclinical models of relapse in which drug seeking is assessed after forced abstinence. This contrasts with the human condition where abstinence is often voluntary because people who use drugs choose to avoid adverse consequences (e.g., adverse interactions with drug dealers or law enforcement) of drug seeking and taking.
During Ida Fredrikssons postdoctoral studies at the NIH in Dr. Yavin Shaham’s lab, she introduced a preclinical model of relapse and craving to conceptually model this human condition and showed that oxycodone relapse is stronger after this form of abstinence than after forced abstinence. Additionally, she found that activity in the brain region, ventral subiculum, is critical for oxycodone relapse and craving after abstinence induced by negative consequences of drug seeking.
The Fredriksson lab aim to further study the brain mechanisms of opioid relapse and craving after voluntary abstinence induced by negative consequences of drug seeking at the cellular/molecular and circuit levels using different cutting-edge techniques.