Abstinence-Conflict Model: Toward an Optimal Animal Model for Screening Medications Promoting Drug Abstinence

Drug addiction is a significant health and societal problem for which there is no highly effective long-term behavioral or pharmacological treatment. A rising concern are the use of illegal opiate drugs such as heroin and the misuse of legally available pain relievers that have led to serious deleterious health effects or even death. Therefore, treatment strategies that prolong opiate abstinence should be the primary focus of opiate treatment. Further, because the factors that support abstinence in humans and laboratory animals are similar, several animal models of abstinence and relapse have been developed. Here, we review a few animal models of abstinence and relapse and evaluate their validity and utility in addressing human behavior that leads to long-term drug abstinence. Then, a novel abstinence "conflict" model that more closely mimics human drug-seeking episodes by incorporating negative consequences for drug seeking (as are typical in humans, eg, incarceration and job loss) and while the drug remains readily available is discussed. Additionally, recent research investigating both cocaine and heroin seeking in rats using the animal conflict model is presented and the implications for heroin treatments are examined. Finally, it is argued that the use of animal abstinence/relapse models that more closely approximate human drug addiction, such as the abstinence-conflict model, could lead to a better understanding of the neurobiological and environmental factors that support long-term drug abstinence. In turn, this will lead to the development of more effective environmental and pharmacotherapeutic interventions to treat opiate addiction and addiction to other drugs of abuse.