The University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) is the state’s public health, law, and human services university devoted to excellence in professional and graduate education, research, patient care, and public service.
Even Rats Understand the Harm in Stigmatizing Substance Abuse By Etiel Forman | January 28, 2021
What can rats tell us about the dangers of stigma? It turns out, a lot. We recently came across a fascinating study conducted by Dr. Marco Venniro in 2018. In this study, Dr. Venniro set out to observe the behaviors of rats around socialization and substance use, specifically methamphetamine. The researchers gave rats the option between pressing one of two levers: one that released a drug infusion, or the other that opened a door, offering interaction with another rat. The rats opted to open the door more than 90% of the time, even when they had previously self-administered methamphetamine for many days and exhibited patterns that correspond to human addictive behaviors. Remarkably, these rats were willing to go through painful withdrawal from amphetamine addiction for the reward of social interaction.