Preclinical Models of Relapse to Psychostimulants Induced by Environmental Stimuli

A major aim of addiction research is the understanding of the pathophysiological profile of relapse risk and the development of treatments for relapse prevention. Exposure to drug-paired environmental stimuli elicits craving and increases the likelihood to relapse. Therefore, scholars in the addiction field have developed several preclinical models of cued relapse in order to study the biological and pharmacological background of this phenomenon. Here we provide an overview of the nowadays available models of cued relapse to psychostimulant seeking. We begin describing the models of relapse induced by drug-contingent and discriminative stimuli, and then we give an overview of the models of context-induced relapse. Finally, we illustrate the models of incubation of cue-induced psychostimulant craving. For each relapse model we provide technical details, a step by step protocol, and troubleshooting tips. The researcher interested in studying the contribution of environmental stimuli to relapse will find here the tools to choose the optimal method to answer their question, and technical details necessary to the methodological implementation of their research.