First Advisor

Basham, Mark

Reader

Lafosse, Jose

College

Regis College

Degree Name

BS

School

Regis College Senior Honors Program

Document Type

Thesis - Open Access

Number of Pages

30 pages

Abstract

In 2006, 9.6% of Americans ages 12 and over were either dependent on or were abusing alcohol or illicit drugs (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2008). Furthermore, the cost of alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drug abuse to companies and hospitals is over $500 billion per year (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2008). A cost effective treatment that decreases drug reward would benefit medical patients taking potentially addictive drugs, recovering drug addicts, and companies and hospitals that expend money as a result of drug abuse. This study examined the effects of housing environment (both social grouping and cage enrichment) on ethanol and morphine addiction in mice. The results did not show that mice in a social and enriched environment would show the least preference for both morphine and ethanol. However, the extremely large effect sizes and past finding suggest that a larger subject population and the addition of a tactile stimulus to the experiment may show that housing environment does affect drug addiction; this could be a monumental contribution to the medical and corporate fields.

Date of Award

Spring 2009

Location (Creation)

Colorado (state); Denver (county); Denver (inhabited place)

Rights Statement

All content in this Collection is owned by and subject to the exclusive control of Regis University and the authors of the materials. It is available only for research purposes and may not be used in violation of copyright laws or for unlawful purposes. The materials may not be downloaded in whole or in part without permission of the copyright holder or as otherwise authorized in the “fair use” standards of the U.S. copyright laws and regulations.

Download

Share

COinS