What Can We Expect from the Evaluation Drug Addiction in Animals?

The growing increase in the consumption of illicit products (heroin, cocaine, and ecstasy), addiction, and problems with withdrawal linked to the administration of substances acting at the central level (benzodiazepines, antidepressants, barbiturates, etc.) require early management of addictive activity of molecules. The acquisition of behavior self-administration was then studied as an animal model initiation of addiction and the resumption of this behavior after its extinction as an animal model of relapse or “Craving.” In fact, the discovery of the rewarding effects of drugs in nondependent animals has not only relegated the physics of addiction to the background in the definition of addiction, but has also contributed to eluding psychiatric conceptions and descriptions of the notion of “vulnerable individual personalities.” For the first time, the experimenters—mainly neurobiologists—sought to develop new theories of addiction based mainly on knowledge of neurobiological substrates rewarding effects drugs. Knowledge of neuronal mechanisms and structures involved in these phenomena in animals is of great benefit in terms of research strategy and makes it possible to guide the choice of criteria for evaluating possible drug dependence in clinical trials. Reliable and reproducible animal models, allowing rapid detection of drug dependencies during development, should be implemented.