PRD Group Research Articles

Conditioned fear stimuli reinstate cocaine-induced conditioned place preference

These studies examined the ability of a conditioned stimulus previously paired with footshock to reinstate cocaine-induced conditioned place preference. Male rats were given either odor or tone in a paired (PRD group) or explicitly unpaired (random, RND group) manner with footshock. All rats were subsequently trained in a cocaine conditioned place preference (CPP) task. Cocaine CPP was demonstrated in all groups. After CPP extinction, presentation of the conditioned fear stimulus produced a greater degree of reinstatement in PRD rats compared to the RND group. This was true whether the conditioned stimulus was odor or tone, but when odor was used as the conditioned stimulus, the RND group also partially reinstated cocaine CPP. In rats trained with tone as the conditioned stimulus, presentation of the tone during the test for reinstatement produced robust reinstatement of cocaine CPP only in the PRD, but not RND, group. In contrast, a subsequent priming injection with cocaine reinstated cocaine CPP equally in both RND and PRD groups. These studies indicate for the first time that conditioned fear stimuli induce reinstatement of cocaine CPP, and suggest that stimuli associated with prior stress may produce relapse in humans.

The paraphilia-related disorders: An empirical investigation of nonparaphilic hypersexuality disorders in outpatient males

The frequency distribution of nonparaphilic hypersexual behaviors was investigated in an outpatient sample of 206 consecutively evaluated males seeking help for sexual impulsivity disorders (SIDs), either paraphilia-related disorders (PRD; n = 63) or paraphilias (PA; n = 143). Paraphilia-related disorders associated with help-seeking behaviors included compulsive masturbation (sample prevalence, 69%), protracted heterosexual or homosexual promiscuity (51%), pornography dependence (50%), telephone-sex dependence (24%), and severe sexual desire incompatibility (12%). Eighty-six percent of the PA sample reported at least one lifetime PRD. The subgroup of males with both PAs and lifetime PRDs (n = 123) self-reported the greatest number of lifetime SIDs, the highest incidence of physical and sexual abuse, the fewest years of completed education, and the highest likelihood of current unemployment or disability. As well, the subgroup of males with PAs but no lifetime PRDs (n = 20) self-reported the fewest lifetime SIDs; this subgroup was not statistically different from the PRD group on these aforementioned variables. These data suggest that social disadvantage, as assessed in this sample, is associated with the cumulative incidence of SIDs but not necessarily with the diathesis to develop paraphilic disorders

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in males with paraphilias and paraphilia-related disorders: a comorbidity study.

We describe a study of DSM-III-R Axis I diagnoses of lifetime comorbid nonsexual disorders in 60 males with paraphilias (PAs; N = 42) and nonparaphilic forms of sexual impulsivity-designated paraphilia-related disorders (PRD; N = 18). Subjects completed a semistructured intake questionnaire and sexual inventories, the Inventory to Diagnose Depression, and the Wender Utah Retrospective Scale for the diagnosis of childhood attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The lifetime prevalence of Axis I diagnoses of both sexual and nonsexual disorders was ascertained from the aforementioned data and follow-up psychiatric interviews. Subjects in both PA and PRD groups were diagnosed as having a lifetime prevalence of any mood disorder (71.7%), especially dysthymic disorder (66.7%); any anxiety disorder (43.3%), especially social phobia (28.3%); any psychoactive substance abuse disorders (45.0%), especially alcohol abuse (30.0%); and any impulse disorders NOS (25.0%), especially speeding/reckless driving (16.7%). The only diagnosis that statistically significantly distinguished the PA from the PRD sample (p = .01) was retrospectively diagnosed childhood ADHD, identified in 40.0% of the total sample (50.0% PA vs.16.7% PRD). Childhood ADHD was associated with the presence of educational and behavioral problems, lower current mean income, social/legal consequences associated with antisocial impulsivity, cocaine abuse, increased prevalence of comorbid lifetime mood and impulse disorder NOS, and more diagnoses of lifetime Axis I nonsexual and sexual disorders. Although depressive disorders were the most common Axis I diagnoses across groups, childhood ADHD was the only Axis I disorder statistically significantly associated with paraphilias, socially deviant and aggressive forms of sexual impulsivity.

Mounting and lordosis behavior in androgen primed ovariectomized rats: effect of dorsal deafferentation of the preoptic area and hypothalamus.

Daily injections of 500 microgram testosterone propionate (TP) for 21 days induced mounting behavior in all of 10 castrated male rats and the mean mount frequency (MF) for 30 min was 32.4 +/- 6.6 (mean +/- S.E.). The same treatment with TP induced mounting behavior in 6 out of 8 ovariectomized rats (female control), but the mean MF was 2.8 +/- 0.7. Eight out of 12 ovariectomized rats which received a horizontal half-circle cut anterior to the anterior commissure (anterior roof deafferentation, ARD) with an L-shaped Halász knife displayed mounting behavior more frequently and their MF was 14.5 +/- 5.1. The latent period between the introduction of a receptive female and the occurrence of the first mounting (mount latency, ML) in ARD rats was significantly shorter than that of the female controls. A half circle cut located posterior to the anterior commissure (posterior roof deafferentation, PRD) and sham deafferentation (SD) in the female rats had no effect on MF and ML. On the day following the last test for male behavior, all female rats were injected with 0.5 mg progesterone in order to examine female sexual behavior. The mean lordosis quotient (LQ) of the ARD group was 62.5 +/- 13.4. In the female control, SD and PRD groups, however, LQs were significantly lower than that of ARD rats, being 15.1 +/- 10.9, 37.5 +/- 14.7 and 23.8 +/- 11.8, respectively. These results suggest that the dorsal inputs to the POA and hypothalamus which pass anterior to the anterior commissure may exert an inhibitory influence not only on the female sexual behavior mediating system but also on the mounting mediating system in female rats.