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Taurine's effects on cocaine reward in adolescent male and female rats
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Abstracts / Drug and Alcohol Dependence 171 (2017) e2–e226
Methods: Following the creation of and Addiction Medicine Fellowship program in Vancouver, BC an existing addiction consultative service was expanded to include medical students, residents and fellows. Data for trainees working on the service were tracked using administrative records between August, 2013 and June, 2016. Data for patient consultations were tracked using the hospital’s Patient Care Information System between January, 2009 and December, 2015. Results: Overall, between July 2013 and June 2016 medical trainees increased from 33 in 2013–14 (4 follows, 2 practicing GPs, 12 residents, 1 nurse, 12 medical students), 73 in 2014–15 (4 fellows, 5 practicing GPs, 43 residents, 1 nurse, 20 medical students), and 98 in 2015–16 (6 fellows, 5 practicing GPs, 47 residents, 2 nurses, 37 medical students). Patient consultations were tacked pre and post expansion. Pre-expansion consults between January, 2009 and December, 2012 averaged 940.25 per year. Post-expansion consults increased in 2013, 2014, and 2015 to 1144, 1623, and 1946, respectively. Conclusions: In this setting, creation of an academic addiction training service has resulted in substantial increases in medical trainees and doubled the number of patients seen in consultation. Further study is needed to assess long-term patient outcomes. Financial Support: Providence Health Care. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2016.08.026 Healthcall on smartphone: A brief intervention to reduce concurrent drug and alcohol use Efrat Aharonovich 1,2,∗ , Eliana Greenstein 2 , Aline Le 2 , Deborah S. Hasin 1,2 1 Psychiatry, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, United States 2 NYSPI, New York, NY, United States
Aims: Alcohol and drug abuse are often not addressed in primary care settings, where staff are busy and resources scarce, so we developed HealthCall to enhance brief intervention using interactive voice response. Recently, as part of the NIH Collaborative Research on Addiction initiative (CRAN), we migrated HealthCall to smartphone technology, and adapted it to have an integrated focus on both alcohol and drugs (“HealthCall-A/D”), for use in enhancing brief behavioral intervention in HIV+ individuals. Due to the innovations in HealthCall-A/D, feasibility information and patient engagement by end-of-treatment (60 days) was needed. Methods: Participants were 41 HIV+ non-injection drug users who were concurrent binge drinkers recruited via ads in local NYC newspapers. Mean age was 50 (s.d., 8.2), 78% were male, 88% African-American, 71% had HS grad/GED. At baseline, mean days of drug use in the past 30 days was 14 (s.d. 6.2), mean drinks per drinking days was 6.4 (s.d. 3.4); mean drinks per day was 3.0 (s.d.2.3) and mean percent days abstinent (PDA) was 53.5 (s.d. 22.7). Study is ongoing; here we present preliminary results. Results: By end of treatment, reduction in mean days of drug use was significant (p < .0001), as was reduction in mean drinks per day (p < .0001) and mean PDA (p < .0001), while reduction in mean drinks per drinking day trended towards significance (p = 0.08). Retention to date is very good, with 100% of participants due for their final visit attending. Engagement is very high; participants have used HealthCall-AD 90.85% of possible days (i.e., nearly daily). Conclusions: Significant drug and alcohol use reductions occurred by the end of treatment in this sample of low SES HIV+ individuals. HealthCall-A/D use (∼91% of possible days) was substantially higher than in our previous HealthCall work in HIV+ drug abusers using interactive voice response (∼65%). These preliminary
results are promising as they show HealthCall-A/D to be highly feasible and engaging for HIV+ individuals abusing both alcohol and drugs. Financial Support: R01DA024606, New York State Psychiatric Institute. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2016.08.027 Taurine’s effects on cocaine reward in adolescent male and female rats Ugochukwu Akpara ∗ , Rina Liang, Avery Villa-Gonzalez, Denzel Harrris, Adel Elzanie, Kirtan Chauhan, Cladimar Vasquez, Tianna Irving, Ayana Cole, Kaliris Yimar Salas-Ramirez Department of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience, CUNY School of Medicine, New York, NY, Brooklyn, NY, United States Aims: According to the 2013 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), approximately 4.2 million United States residents are estimated to use cocaine in a year. The survey showed that approximately 3% of current users in the US are adolescents. Females begin using illicit drugs, like cocaine, at lower doses when compared to males; however, their uses escalate very rapidly into addiction. Women also relapse more often and have a tougher time in rehab, therefore, when considering pharmacological interventions for cocaine addiction, one must consider sex and age of exposure. Previous studies from our laboratory determined sex specific effects of taurine on cocaine reward, males benefitting from taurine pre-treatment. Although it also decreased cocaine reward in females, it was dependent on time of exposure and gonadal hormones. The objective of this study was to test whether taurine would have a differential effect on adolescent rats. Methods: Thirty-six male adolescent rats (P30) were treated with either taurine (100 mg/kg) or saline and tested for cocaine (10 mg/kg) reward using a conditioned place preference paradigm. Results: Adolescent male rats showed a strong preference towards the cocaine paired chamber, independent of taurine pretreatment. Surprisingly, they also acquired a preference to taurine. Conclusions: This was not observed in intact or gonadectomized adult males. The preference to cocaine in females is hormone dependent, so we hypothesized that taurine may exacerbate cocaine reward in adolescent females. These findings have strong implications for the relationship between compounds found in energy drinks and stimulant use and abuse. We will further investigate sex differences within this paradigm to determine whether these effects are sex-specific. Financial Support: 5G12RR003060-26 from the NCRR and 8G12MD7603-27 from the NIMHD (EF, KSR). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2016.08.028
Abstracts / Drug and Alcohol Dependence 171 (2017) e2–e226
Methods: Following the creation of and Addiction Medicine Fellowship program in Vancouver, BC an existing addiction consultative service was expanded to include medical students, residents and fellows. Data for trainees working on the service were tracked using administrative records between August, 2013 and June, 2016. Data for patient consultations were tracked using the hospital’s Patient Care Information System between January, 2009 and December, 2015. Results: Overall, between July 2013 and June 2016 medical trainees increased from 33 in 2013–14 (4 follows, 2 practicing GPs, 12 residents, 1 nurse, 12 medical students), 73 in 2014–15 (4 fellows, 5 practicing GPs, 43 residents, 1 nurse, 20 medical students), and 98 in 2015–16 (6 fellows, 5 practicing GPs, 47 residents, 2 nurses, 37 medical students). Patient consultations were tacked pre and post expansion. Pre-expansion consults between January, 2009 and December, 2012 averaged 940.25 per year. Post-expansion consults increased in 2013, 2014, and 2015 to 1144, 1623, and 1946, respectively. Conclusions: In this setting, creation of an academic addiction training service has resulted in substantial increases in medical trainees and doubled the number of patients seen in consultation. Further study is needed to assess long-term patient outcomes. Financial Support: Providence Health Care. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2016.08.026 Healthcall on smartphone: A brief intervention to reduce concurrent drug and alcohol use Efrat Aharonovich 1,2,∗ , Eliana Greenstein 2 , Aline Le 2 , Deborah S. Hasin 1,2 1 Psychiatry, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, United States 2 NYSPI, New York, NY, United States
Aims: Alcohol and drug abuse are often not addressed in primary care settings, where staff are busy and resources scarce, so we developed HealthCall to enhance brief intervention using interactive voice response. Recently, as part of the NIH Collaborative Research on Addiction initiative (CRAN), we migrated HealthCall to smartphone technology, and adapted it to have an integrated focus on both alcohol and drugs (“HealthCall-A/D”), for use in enhancing brief behavioral intervention in HIV+ individuals. Due to the innovations in HealthCall-A/D, feasibility information and patient engagement by end-of-treatment (60 days) was needed. Methods: Participants were 41 HIV+ non-injection drug users who were concurrent binge drinkers recruited via ads in local NYC newspapers. Mean age was 50 (s.d., 8.2), 78% were male, 88% African-American, 71% had HS grad/GED. At baseline, mean days of drug use in the past 30 days was 14 (s.d. 6.2), mean drinks per drinking days was 6.4 (s.d. 3.4); mean drinks per day was 3.0 (s.d.2.3) and mean percent days abstinent (PDA) was 53.5 (s.d. 22.7). Study is ongoing; here we present preliminary results. Results: By end of treatment, reduction in mean days of drug use was significant (p < .0001), as was reduction in mean drinks per day (p < .0001) and mean PDA (p < .0001), while reduction in mean drinks per drinking day trended towards significance (p = 0.08). Retention to date is very good, with 100% of participants due for their final visit attending. Engagement is very high; participants have used HealthCall-AD 90.85% of possible days (i.e., nearly daily). Conclusions: Significant drug and alcohol use reductions occurred by the end of treatment in this sample of low SES HIV+ individuals. HealthCall-A/D use (∼91% of possible days) was substantially higher than in our previous HealthCall work in HIV+ drug abusers using interactive voice response (∼65%). These preliminary
results are promising as they show HealthCall-A/D to be highly feasible and engaging for HIV+ individuals abusing both alcohol and drugs. Financial Support: R01DA024606, New York State Psychiatric Institute. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2016.08.027 Taurine’s effects on cocaine reward in adolescent male and female rats Ugochukwu Akpara ∗ , Rina Liang, Avery Villa-Gonzalez, Denzel Harrris, Adel Elzanie, Kirtan Chauhan, Cladimar Vasquez, Tianna Irving, Ayana Cole, Kaliris Yimar Salas-Ramirez Department of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience, CUNY School of Medicine, New York, NY, Brooklyn, NY, United States Aims: According to the 2013 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), approximately 4.2 million United States residents are estimated to use cocaine in a year. The survey showed that approximately 3% of current users in the US are adolescents. Females begin using illicit drugs, like cocaine, at lower doses when compared to males; however, their uses escalate very rapidly into addiction. Women also relapse more often and have a tougher time in rehab, therefore, when considering pharmacological interventions for cocaine addiction, one must consider sex and age of exposure. Previous studies from our laboratory determined sex specific effects of taurine on cocaine reward, males benefitting from taurine pre-treatment. Although it also decreased cocaine reward in females, it was dependent on time of exposure and gonadal hormones. The objective of this study was to test whether taurine would have a differential effect on adolescent rats. Methods: Thirty-six male adolescent rats (P30) were treated with either taurine (100 mg/kg) or saline and tested for cocaine (10 mg/kg) reward using a conditioned place preference paradigm. Results: Adolescent male rats showed a strong preference towards the cocaine paired chamber, independent of taurine pretreatment. Surprisingly, they also acquired a preference to taurine. Conclusions: This was not observed in intact or gonadectomized adult males. The preference to cocaine in females is hormone dependent, so we hypothesized that taurine may exacerbate cocaine reward in adolescent females. These findings have strong implications for the relationship between compounds found in energy drinks and stimulant use and abuse. We will further investigate sex differences within this paradigm to determine whether these effects are sex-specific. Financial Support: 5G12RR003060-26 from the NCRR and 8G12MD7603-27 from the NIMHD (EF, KSR). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2016.08.028