Addicting Rats to Cocaine
Friday, August 13th, 2004 at 1:25 pm
People are spending money on this???
Giving cocaine to rats, and then shocking them? Glad we are spending health care research dollars on such pressing issues.
Recent research has demonstrated that addicted rats have the same compulsive drive for cocaine as humans do. Two new studies, a French and a British one, show that rats can become addicted just like we do
Lead researcher, Pier Vincenzo Piazza, INSERM, France, noticed that 17% of the rats still persisted, even if it meant getting electric shocks. About 15% of human cocaine takers become addicted and are willing to go through hell to get their drugs.The British scientists, at Cambridge University, also noticed that the rats were still willing to experience electric shocks on their feet in order to get their fix of cocaine. This only happened with the rats which had been taking the cocaine for a long time. The rats that had only been taking the drug for a short while gave up after the first electric shock.
Addicted rats have same compulsive drive for cocaine as humans do
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