# Social support, oxytocin and motivation for methamphetamine

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · 2021 · $65,331

## Abstract

Summary/Abstract
 Addiction to methamphetamine (METH) is a major public health concern, however there are no effective
treatments. Although METH is used by both men and women, women are younger when they start using
METH, and show higher rates of dependence compare to men. Women also report a higher exposure to
traumatic events and often start using to cope with psychological problems. Social support has a positive
influence on stress-coping and might also have protective effects against addiction and help promote
decreased motivation to take METH. Females show greater motivation for cocaine than male rats and social
housing (pair housing) attenuates the motivation for cocaine in females but not males. Here we investigate
whether oxytocin (OT) mediates the effects of social housing on motivation for METH. It is hypothesized that
the effects of social housing are mediated by OT-dependent attenuation of dopamine (DA) release in the
nucleus accumbens core (NAc) after drug taking is established and that these effects will be greater in females
than in males. Previous research has established that social housing attenuates the METH-induced increase in
DA in dialysate from the NAc, and chronic low dose OT attenuates the motivation for METH in females rats.
Experiments will test the following hypotheses: 1) with social housing the more dominant animal will
have lower DA release compared to the non-dominant pair and individually housed animals. 2)
Chronic intranasal OT treatment will modulate the DA response to METH; and 3) sex differences and/or
individual differences in DA release will predict the motivation for self-administration of METH. Social
housing attenuates the METH-induced increase in DA in dialysate from the NAc of female rats and OT
attenuates motivation for METH in female rats. Fast scan cyclic voltammetry will be used to investigate the
effect of social housing and chronic intranasal OT on DA release in NAc to determine if there are sex
differences and whether individual differences in METH-induced DA release predict motivation for METH
during subsequent self-administration studies.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10355816
- **Project number:** 3R01DA046403-03S1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR
- **Principal Investigator:** JILL B. BECKER
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $65,331
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2019-07-15 → 2024-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10355816

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10355816, Social support, oxytocin and motivation for methamphetamine (3R01DA046403-03S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-29 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10355816. Licensed CC0.

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