ArticleBiological psychiatry2016
N-acetylcysteine Facilitates Self-Imposed Abstinence After Escalation of Cocaine Intake.
Article in Biological psychiatry, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 44 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
44 citing papers in PubMed, 79 citations in OpenAlex.
- N-acetylcysteine reduces cocaine-seeking behavior and anterior cingulate glutamate/glutamine levels among cocaine-dependent individuals.Addiction biology · 2021Trial
- An evaluation of N-acetylcysteine in a sequential oxycodone and cocaine rat self-administration model.Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology · 2026Article
- From Stress to Substance Use Disorders: The Expanding Role of Microglia-Astrocyte Crosstalk in Neuroimmune and Glutamate Alterations in the Nucleus Accumbens.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Modeling escalation of drug intake to identify molecular targets for treating substance use disorders: A slippery slope upward.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2025Review
- Incentive Cocaine-Seeking Habits and Their Compulsive Manifestation Emerge After a Downregulation of the Dopamine Transporter in Astrocytes Across Functional Domains of the Striatum.The European journal of neuroscience · 2025Article
- Exploring the potential link between ΔFosB andActa neuropsychiatrica · 2024Review
- Neuroimmune modulators as novel pharmacotherapies for substance use disorders.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2024Article
- Article
- N-Acetylcysteine normalizes brain oxidative stress and neuroinflammation observed after protracted ethanol abstinence: a preclinical study in long-term ethanol-experienced male rats.Psychopharmacology · 2023Article
- Glutamate dynamics in the dorsolateral striatum of rats with goal-directed and habitual cocaine-seeking behavior.Frontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2023Article
- Astrocytes in cocaine addiction and beyond.Molecular psychiatry · 2022Review
- A mechanistic overview of approaches for the treatment of psychostimulant dependence.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2022Review
- Early environmental enrichment and impoverishment differentially affect addiction-related behavioral traits, cocaine-taking, and dopamine DPsychopharmacology · 2021Article
- N-acetylcysteine in substance use disorder: a lesson from preclinical and clinical research.Pharmacological reports : PR · 2021Review
- Animal Models of the Behavioral Symptoms of Substance Use Disorders.Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in medicine · 2021Review
- Females develop features of an addiction-like phenotype sooner during withdrawal than males.Psychopharmacology · 2021Article
- Baclofen decreases compulsive alcohol drinking in rats characterized by reduced levels of GAT-3 in the central amygdala.Addiction biology · 2021Article
- Effectiveness of N-acetylcysteine in Treating Clinical Symptoms of Substance Abuse and Dependence: A Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.Clinical psychopharmacology and neuroscience : the official scientific journal of the Korean College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2021Article
- Reduced Glutamate Turnover in the Putamen Is Linked With Automatic Habits in Human Cocaine Addiction.Biological psychiatry · 2021Article
- Potential Benefits of N-Acetylcysteine in Preventing Pregabalin-Induced Seeking-Like Behavior.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundN-acetylcysteine (NAC) has been suggested to prevent relapse to cocaine seeking. However, the psychological processes underlying its potential therapeutic benefit remain largely unknown.
methodsWe investigated the hallmark features of addiction that were influenced by chronic NAC treatment in rats given extended access to cocaine: escalation, motivation, self-imposed abstinence in the face of punishment, or propensity to relapse. For this, Sprague Dawley rats were given access either to 1 hour (short access) or 6 hours (long access [LgA]) self-administration (SA) sessions until LgA rats displayed a robust escalation. Rats then received daily saline or NAC (60 mg/kg, intraperitoneal) treatment and were tested under a progressive ratio and several consecutive sessions in which lever presses were punished by mild electric foot shocks.
resultsNAC increased the sensitivity to punishment in LgA rats only, thereby promoting abstinence. Following the cessation of punishment, NAC-treated LgA rats failed to recover fully their prepunishment cocaine intake levels and resumed cocaine SA at a lower rate than short access and vehicle-treated LgA rats. However, NAC altered neither the escalation of SA nor the motivation for cocaine. At the neurobiological level, NAC reversed cocaine-induced decreases in the glutamate type 1 transporter observed in both the nucleus accumbens and the dorsolateral striatum. NAC also increased the expression of Zif268 in the nucleus accumbens and dorsolateral striatum of LgA rats.
conclusionsOur results indicate that NAC contributes to the restoration of control over cocaine SA following adverse consequences, an effect associated with plasticity mechanisms in both the ventral and dorsolateral striatum.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.