Adolescent Exposure to Methamphetamine Leads to Sensitization of Methamphetamine in Adult Mice [Poster]

Abstract

Methamphetamine (METH) is a psychostimulant drug that causes severe physical and mental effect on its users. Adolescent METH users may be prone to addiction because this is a critical window of development in the brain. METH is a dopamine (DA) agonist which causes behavioral activation and acts as a motivator for exploration and excitability. Changes in DA levels and the inhibition of DA reuptake result in increased locomotor activity, also called sensitization. Sensitization is a phenomenon that occurs when pretreatment with one stimulant leads to greater sensitivity when exposed again in the future. Given that adolescence is a period of neural development, we proposed that adolescent mice exposed to METH will show an increase in sensitization when exposed to a sub-acute challenge dose in adulthood. [POSTER]