Rat Park: How a rat paradise changed the narrative of addiction
Abstract
‘Rat Park’ is the name given to a series of studies undertaken in the late 1970s by Bruce K. Alexander and colleagues. They found that rats housed in enriched environments consumed less morphine solution than those in isolated cages, when rats were pre‐exposed to morphine, naive to morphine, and whether they had spent their early life in isolation or in enriched housing. The measured conclusions from the authors at the time have become somewhat lost in translation.
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Social and interpersonal origins of addiction are often highlighted, with addiction viewed as a disorder of social isolation and disconnection.
“In addition to the biological and psychological roots of addiction, its social and interpersonal origins are often highlighted, with writers such as Bruce Alexander and Johan Harri stressing the social context of addiction, as a disorder of social isolation and disconnection (10, 11).”
From Addiction Psychotherapy: Going Beyond Self-Medication (2022) · cites this paper as [11]
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- Authors
- Gage, S. H., & Sumnall, H. R.
- Affiliations
- University of Liverpool (GB)
- Liverpool John Moores University (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Gage, Suzanne H.
- Venue
- Addiction
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2018-11-16
- Volume
- 114
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 917-922
- ISSN
- 0965-2140 (ISSN-L)
- 1360-0443
- OpenAlex
- W2898222000
- Cited by
- 41
- References
- 34
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 2
- FWCI
- 1.25
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Addiction (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Liverpool John Moores University (acceptedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Opioid Use Disorder Treatment
- Keywords
- environmental enrichment, morphine self-administration, social isolation, animal models of addiction, history of addiction research
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Morphine, Behavior, Addictive, Rats
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