Ricerc@Sapienza

Neuronal ensembles in ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) play a role in both cocaine and palatable food seeking. However, it is unknown whether similar or different vmPFC neuronal ensembles mediate food and cocaine seeking. Here, we used the Daun02 inactivation procedure to assess whether the neuronal ensembles mediating food and cocaine seeking can be functionally distinguished. We trained male and female Fos-LacZ rats to self-administer palatable food pellets and cocaine on alternating days for 18 days.

Objectives: Chemsex is referred to illicit drugs use (GHB/GBL, methamphetamine, and mephedrone) to enhance the sexual activity in Men who
have Sex with Men (MSM). Most studies focused on the health risks
associated to chemsex, while less attention was paid on the effects on sexual
response and motivations to engage in this behavior. The current study aims
to investigate how drugs used in chemsex might affect the sexual activity and
which are the motivations encouraging men to use them.

Chemsex is a novel phenomenon referred to illicit drugs consumption to facilitate, enhance and prolong the sexual experience in Men who have Sex with Men (MSM). Since 2012, Chemsex quickly became identified in big cities and sex-on-premise venues giving rise to a transdisciplinary attention due to the related public health risks. The present study aims to investigate the contexts, the patterns of substance use and the first chemsex experience in a group of Italian MSM practicing chemsex.

Objective: Internet pornography addiction typically involves viewing, downloading and trading online pornography or engagement in adult fantasy role-play. There are some well-validated inventories measuring perceived addiction to internet pornography but these instruments are often too long for a functionally use and fast scoring.

Aim. In this study, we investigated in people suffering from alcohol use disorder (AUD) with or without dual diagnosis (concomitant psychiatric disability) how they feel their dependence condition. We predicted that AUD people with a dual diagnosis could feel
potentiated their addiction.
Methods. Alcohol habits and psychiatric conditions of 183 AUD men and 62 AUD women were measured by using the DSM-5, the severity of alcohol dependence questionnaire (SADQ), the alcohol anamnesis and psychiatric examination by the symptom
check list 90-R (SCL-90-R).

Previous findings from this laboratory demonstrate: (1) that different classes of addictive drugs require intact norepinephrine (NE) transmission in the medial pre Frontal Cortex (mpFC) to promote conditioned place preference and to increase dopamine (DA) tone in the nucleus accumbens shell (NAc Shell); (2) that only food-restricted mice require intact NE transmission in the mpFC to develop conditioned preference for a context associated with milk chocolate; and (3) that food-restricted mice show a significantly larger increase of mpFC NE outflow then free fed mice when experiencing the pal

Emerging researches from human and animal models have shown the role of ethanol in innate immune system modulation, particularly in the central nervous system. The activation of receptors of the innate immunity, Toll-like receptors and nucleotide- binding oligomerization domain-like (NOD-like) receptors, triggers the signaling pathways that bring to the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, which, in turn, provokes neuroinflammation and neural damage.

Previous studies have shown that individuals with heroin and cocaine addiction prefer to use these drugs in distinct settings: mostly at home in the case of heroin and mostly outside the home in the case of cocaine. Here we investigated whether the context would modulate the affective and neural responses to these drugs in a similar way. First, we used a novel emotional task to assess the affective state produced by heroin or cocaine in different settings, based on the recollections of male and female drug users.

Results from preclinical rodent studies during the last 20 years implicated glutamate neurotransmission in different
brain regions in drug self-administration and rodent models of relapse. These results, along with evidence for druginduced
neuroadaptations in glutamatergic neurons and receptors, suggested that addiction might be treatable by
medications that inhibit glutamatergic responses to drugs of abuse, drug-associated cues, and stressors. This idea is

Background: In this paper, we reviewed translational studies concerned with environmental influences on the rewarding effects of heroin versus cocaine in rats and humans with substance use disorder. These studies show that both experienced utility (‘liking’) and decision utility (‘wanting’) of heroin and cocaine shift in opposite directions as a function of the setting in which these drugs were used. Briefly, rats and humans prefer using heroin at home but cocaine outside the home.