Individual vulnerabilities relative for potential pathological conditions

It is not a usual venture to review experiments conducted decades ago in the context of interests of that time and replace them in a long-term historical perspective. These investigations were the product of a long-standing interest for individual differences in vulnerabilities relative to coping with stressful situations and for potential pathological conditions such as drug abuse. The rationale was, and still is, to decipher the psychobiological characteristics of these complex traits.

STRESS- AND PHARMACOLOGICALLY-INDUCED BEHAVIORAL SENSITIZATION INCREASES VULNERABILITY TO ACQUISITION OF AMPHETAMINE SELF-ADMINISTRATION: Individual vulnerability to drug addiction may be an important factor in the prognosis of pathological behavior in man. However, experimental investigations have largely neglected the psychobiological substrate of predisposition to addiction. In this study, we use a self-administration (SA) acquisition paradigm showing that previous repeated exposure to a stressful experience (tail-pinch) or to amphetamine increases the locomotor response to this drug (behavioral sensitization) and enhances vulnerability to amphetamine SA. These results show that vulnerability to developing amphetamine SA may be influenced by stressful experiences, and that previous contact with the drug may also enhance a predisposition to amphetamine-taking behavior. As tail-pinch and amphetamine sensitization affect both the dopamine (DA) neural system and the propensity to self-administer amphetamine (a behavior also modulated by DA activity), stress may influence SA via an action on the DA system. © 1990. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled SI:50th Anniversary Issue.