Paradoxical changes in brain reward status during oxycodone self‐administration in a novel test of the negative reinforcement hypothesis

Abstract

The extra medical use of, and addiction to, prescription opioid analgesics is a growing health problem. To characterize how prescription opioid abuse develops, this study investigated the affective consequences of escalating prescription opioid use using intracranial self‐stimulation (ICSS) reward and oxycodone intravenous self‐administration (IVSA) models.