Chronic Cocaine Treatment Alters Social/Aggressive Behavior in Sprague-Dawley Rat Dams and in Their Prenatally Exposed Offspringa.

Abstract

Maternal cocaine abuse during pregnancy has been correlated with a greater incidence of maternal neglect and problems with maternal-infant bonding.1 Children of mothers who have abused cocaine during pregnancy have exhibited signs of increased irritability and altered state liability as newborns2,3 and are aggressive, show poor social attachment, and display abnormal play behavior in unstructured environments as young children.4 These data suggest cocaine-induced, abnormal development of socioemotional behavior, but it is difficult to determine if these deficits are a direct result of cocaine or are related to living in an unstable or abusive environment. Animal research on the effects of prenatal cocaine exposure suggest that offspring exposed prenatally to cocaine exhibit signs of behavioral abnormalities including increased “emotionality” and neophobia5,6 and aggression towards an intruder or other untreated conspecifics.7–9 Long-term changes in specific neurotransmitter systems may be related to behavioral alterations. On the basis of previous findings,7–9 we focused our research on cocaine-induced alterations of both maternal and offspring social/aggressive behavior. The following data include a summary of results from several recent experiments.