Ontogenetic treatment of rats with the dopamine D(2)-like receptor agonist quinpirole produces a significant increase in dopamine D(2) receptor sensitivity that persists throughout the animal's lifetime, a phenomenon known as D(2) priming. The present study was designed to investigate the effects of priming of the D(2) receptor on the expression of three different members of the regulator of G-protein signaling (RGS) family: Rgs4, Rgs9 and Rgs17. Male offspring were ontogenetically treated with quinpirole or saline from postnatal days (P)1-21 and raised to adulthood. On approximately P65, animals were given an acute quinipirole injection (0.1 mg/kg) and the number of yawns was recorded for 1 h after the injection. Yawning has been shown to be a behavioural event mediated by the dopamine D(2)/D(3) receptor. Animals ontogenetically treated with quinpirole demonstrated a significant 2.5-fold increase in yawning as compared to controls. Rgs transcripts were analysed through in situ hybridization several weeks later. Rats ontogenetically treated with quinpirole demonstrated a significant decrease in Rgs9 expression in the frontal cortex, but a more robust decrease in the striatum and nucleus accumbens as compared to controls. Regarding Rgs17, ontogenetic quinpirole produced a modest but significant increase in expression in the same brain areas. There were no significant differences in Rgs4 expression produced by drug treatment in any of the brain regions analysed. This study demonstrates that ontogenetic quinpirole treatment, which results in priming of the D(2) receptor, results in significant decreases in Rgs9, which has been shown to regulate G-protein coupling to D(2) receptors.

Neonatal quinpirole (dopamine D(2)/D(3) agonist) treatment to rats has been shown to increase dopamine D(2) receptor sensitivity throughout the animal's lifetime. Male and female Sprague-Dawley rats were neonatalally treated with quinpirole (1 mg/kg) from postnatal days (P) 1-21 and raised to adulthood. Beginning on P62, rats were administered the atypical antipsychotic olanzapine (2.5 mg/kg) twice daily for 28 days. Starting 1 day after the end of olanzapine treatment, animals were behaviorally tested on the place and match-to-place version of the Morris water maze (MWM) over seven consecutive days, and a yawning behavioral test was also performed to test for sensitivity of the D(2) receptor 1 day following MWM testing. Similar to results from a past study, olanzapine alleviated cognitive impairment on the MWM place version and increases in yawning produced by neonatal quinpirole treatment. Brain tissue analyses showed that neonatal quinpirole treatment resulted in a significant decrease of hipppocampal ChAT and BDNF RNA expression that were unaffected by adulthood olanzapine treatment, although adulthood olanzapine treatment produced a significant increase in cerebellar ChAT RNA expression. There were no significant effects of drug treatment on NGF RNA expression in any brain area. These results show that neonatal quinpirole treatment produced significant decreases of protein RNA expression that is specific to the hippocampus. Although olanzapine alleviated cognitive deficits produced by neonatal quinpirole treatment, it did not affect expression of proteins known to be important in cognitive performance.

Book Summary: More is known about the behavior, anatomy, and molecular biology of the laboratory rat than any other animal species. Although its natural history and psychological functions have been described previously in books, this is the first comprehensive description of its behavior. Both seasoned and beginning investigators will be amazed at the range and complexity of the species as described in the 43 chapters of this volume. The behavioral descriptions are closely tied to the laboratory methods from which they were derived, thus allowing investigators to correlate the behavior and methods and exploit them in their own research. This book is aimed at investigators in neuroscience who may not be familiar with rat behavior, but who wish to incorporate behavioral studies into their own research. Nevertheless, seasoned investigators will also find the book to be a handy reference for behavioral paradigms with which they may not be familiar. It is expected that as the genetic and molecular understanding of the rat develops, there will be an increasing need for knowledge about rat behavior. This book will serve as an indispensable resource for neuroscientists, psychologists, pharmacologists, geneticists, molecular biologists, zoologists, and their students and trainees.

A Collegiate Recovery Community (CRC), also called a Collegiate Recovery Program (CRP) provides a college student in recovery (CSR) an opportunity to attend college with a network that supports their choice to remain free from addictive substances and other addictive behaviors. While research has established the value of CRPs on college campuses, less is known about the connection of a CRP and the role of family through the recovery process. This poster will review the primary components of a CRP and provide findings from a qualitative study seeking to understand how CRPs can involve family. The findings of the study also provide practical application for how CRCs can connect with the families of students in recovery to enhance the recovery process. The key takeaways of this poster include presenting information related to the CRC and evidence for how CRCs can support family members and college students in recovery.

Opioid use disorder (OUD) is one of the most pressing public health problems of our time, with staggering morbidity, social impact, and economic costs. Prescription opioids play a critical role in the opioid crisis as they increase exposure and availability in the general population, making them an attractive target for much needed prevention and risk mitigation strategies. Opioid exposure, including legitimate prescription use, leads to a variety of physiologic adaptations (e.g. dependence) that may be leveraged to understand and identify risk of misuse. Mobile health (mHealth) tools, including wearable sensors have great potential in this space, but have been underutilized. Of specific interest are digital biomarkers, or end-user generated physiologic or behavioral measurements that correlate with events of interest, health, or pathology. Preliminary data support the concept that wearable sensors can detect digital biomarkers of opioid use and may provide clues regarding individual physiologic adaptations to opioid use over time. This dissertation follows a path though the exploration and refinement of these digital biomarkers of opioid use in various clinical use cases. Longitudinal data from individuals treated with opioids for acute pain will be explored through various machine learning models to detect opioid use and to explore patient and treatment factors that impact model performance. Next, a signal processing approach will be undertaken to explore the effects of opioid agonism in a different population of individuals- those presenting with opioid toxicity and precipitated withdrawal. Both approaches will be combined to further refine the digital biomarker capabilities, this time with a focus on the difference between opioid naive and chronic users. And finally, usability, facilitators and barriers to use of a sensor-based monitoring system for opioids will be evaluated through a qualitative lens. Taken together, theses data support the development of a smart technology, driven by empirically derived algorithms which can be used to monitor opioid use, support safe prescribing practices, and reduce OUD and death.

Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) remains an ever-growing public health issue and a continued avenue for future research. The research question for this retrospective study was whether polysubstance exposure is related to the dose of medication the infant received or to the number of opioid-medications required to treat the infants’ withdrawal symptoms? The hypothesis for the retrospective study was there will be a significant relationship between polysubstance exposure and the dose of medication the infant received as well as the number of opioid-medications required to treat the infants’ withdrawal symptoms. A bivariate correlational indicated that there was not a significant association between the number of substances exposed to prenatally and the total number of drugs infants were treated with (n = 294, r = 0.093, p = .113). Additionally, within the largest group of pharmacologically treated infants (i.e., morphine), the highest dosage of morphine was not related to the number of drugs infants were exposed to prenatally, n = 195, r = -0.098, p = .172.

Background: Tobacco use exacerbates diseases, including tuberculosis (TB) and interferes with recovery from such outcomes. However, there is sparse research on the integration of tobacco cessation into TB programs. Moreover, there is limited evidence on how mHealth solutions for tobacco can enhance cessation among TB patients. This study aimed to assess the impact of a training program to integrate tobacco cessation in TB program on the knowledge of health workers. Methods: In June 2017, a 5-day training about tobacco use and control and the use of mHealth solutions to improve tobacco cessation and enhance adherence to TB treatment was conducted in Uganda. A comparison of percent of participants reporting knowledge on selected health outcomes of tobacco use and secondhand tobacco smoke (SHS) exposure was conducted. Knowledge was assessed on a 21-outcome-item before and after training. A non-parametric test, signrank for comparison of paired observations was conducted. The changes were considered statistically significant if the p-value was less than 5%. Results: Twenty three trainees from across the country attended (13 females, 10 males), with median age of the trainees was 39 years. Pre-training knowledge about tobacco use (66.6%) was higher than SHS exposure (45%). Following the training, both sets of knowledge significantly improved (median 100%). Pre-training knowledge about health effects of tobacco use was particularly low for diabetes (27%), meningitis (9.5%), ear infection (43%), impotence (47.6%), and fibrosis (30%). Except heart attack (76%), lung illness among children (91%), lung cancer (81%), and chronic lung disease (81%), pre-training knowledge about SHS was low for all other disease outcomes. Conclusions: Healthcare providers play critical role in preventing and reducing tobacco use. The low pre-training knowledge of the TB health workers suggests the critical need for training health providers in Uganda and elsewhere in Africa in order to curtail the increasing trend in usage.

The purpose of the literature review is to identify consistent patterns regarding adolescent use and abuse of chemical substances, especially alcohol and marijuana. Acute physical, cognitive and social effects of alcohol and marijuana use are outlined, and environmental and personal determinants of drug use and abuse are examined. Methods of prevention and intervention are discussed and, from the research findings, a model group counseling program designed for the school setting is proposed. Adolescent use of both marijuana and alcohol is found to be modal by age 16-17. The physical, cognitive and social effects are pervasive and especially damaging to chronic users. Youth are extremely vulnerable to suffering adversity from their drug use patterns.

Janis is a residential drug treatment program for drug abusers between the ages of twelve and eighteen deigned to rehabilitate the participants. Five homes, each staffed by two trained residential coordinators and one student accommodate a total of thirty patients at a time. The treatment program consists of daily house meetings led by the residential coordinators, one group therapy session per week led by a psychiatric social worker, and individual therapy sessions with a psychiatrist as needed, as well as regular consultation with a psychologist and psychiatrist. The adolescents enrolled in the program are referred from a variety of agencies, including the Multnomah County Juvenile Court and Home, the Psychiatric Crisis Unit operated by the University of Oregon Health Sciences Center, and other out-patient treatment centers in Portland. Only those adolescents who are motivated to change their behavior are accepted into the Janis program.

This was a three part study designed to evaluate the effectiveness of the Basic Seminar, a five-day personal growth training designed and presented by Lifespring, Inc. The instrument used in this study was the Personal Orientation Inventory (POI) published in 1963 by Everett L. Shostrom and copyrighted by Edits Publishing Co., San Diego, CA. This inventory consists of 150 two-choice comparative value and behavior judgments. Two basic scales measure personal orientation, inner directed support and time competence. Ten subscales measure different conceptually important elements of self-actualizing. The items are scored twice, once for the two basic scales and second for the ten subscales. The human potential movement is a relatively recent phenomenon in contemporary society and Lifespring's Basic Seminar is one of the many personal growth trainings which has developed within this context and is based upon the principles of humanistic psychology. The purpose of the training is to facilitate within the individual self-actualizing processes leading to greater personal fulfillment. The scales in the POI measure those facets of self-actualizing which the Lifespring training is designed to develop and was chosen as the instrument for this study primarily for that reason.