A comparison of therapies for the treatment of drug cues: counterconditioning vs. extinction in male rats.

Although extinction has been used as a treatment to reduce the power of drug cues, a better method is needed. Research with traditional reinforcers has shown that counterconditioning--pairing an appetitive cue with an aversive stimulus--can suppress cue-controlled behavior. The present experiment compared the counterconditioning and extinction of cocaine cues. Male rats were first trained to self-administer cocaine during a light cue. In the second phase, the light was paired with footshock in the counterconditioning group. The extinction group was treated similarly, except light presentations did not end in footshock. Counterconditioning suppressed cocaine seeking to a greater extent than extinction while the counterconditioning treatment was actively administered. On a subsequent stimulus compounding test, where footshock was discontinued and the light was presented simultaneously with an untreated cocaine cue (a tone), suppressive effects of counterconditioning were evident during the early portion of the test but not during later trials. Overall, results of the present experiment suggest that counterconditioning produces only temporarily suppressive effects on cue-controlled cocaine seeking. Methods for directly weakening the cue-drug association (e.g., "deepened extinction") may prove to be more useful drug cue treatments.