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Abstract
Environmental experiences have an important effect on the sensitivity of an individual
to drugs of abuse. Studies of drug self-administration in laboratory animals have
shown that both physical and psychological stressors facilitate the acquisition of
drug self-administration, probably by increasing the reinforcing efficacy of drugs
of abuse. Stressors also facilitate the reinstatement of drug taking even after prolonged
periods of withdrawal. The adrenal hormones, glucocorticoids, which increase the sensitivity
of mesencephalic dopaminergic neurones to drugs, seem to be one of the biological
substrates of the effects of stress on the propensity to develop drug intake. In this
review, Pier Vincenzo Piazza and Michel Le Moal discuss theories of drug abuse, the
influence of different stressful experiences on drug self-administration and their
possible mechanisms of action.