In the early 20th century, scientists used rats to study the behavioral effects of self-administered cocaine addiction. They isolated an albino rat in a cold metal cage and gave it the choice of plain water, or water laced with cocaine. All the different rats almost always chose the cocaine water, and all almost always have a deadly overdose very quickly. That study shaped our view of addictive behavior, as the rats exhibited the same symptoms as humans.
Then came Dr Bruce Alexander and his colleagues. A Canadian psychologist at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada. He hypothesized that the conditions of other studies at the time may be responsible for exacerbating self-administration.
So Alexander and his colleagues built “Rat Park”, a housing colony 200 times the size of a standard laboratory cage. Consisting 16-20 rats of both sexes, with food, brightly colored wheels and balls for play, and enough room for mating. He proved his hypothesis right. Putting a rat in an empty cage with nothing else to do but imbibe in the drug will almost always result in an addicted rat.
Put a rat in a huge park with great food, things to stimulate their brain, they can socialize, they are free to roam, they can have sex, and one could equate having rats friends living with you is what we would call a support network. Still having access to a drugged water bottle, they preferred to choose the plain water. And one of the most remarkable findings is that when and if they did imbibe in the drugs, it was intermittently, not obsessively, and it never resulted in an overdose, deadly or otherwise.
It changes from an almost 100% overdose rate when they are isolated, to a zero percent overdose rate when they live a happy, healthy, connected life. What if addiction is not about your chemical hooks? What if it is about your cage? Maybe addiction is adapting to your environment? In our country’s war on drugs is making drugs more prevalent? We criminalize and punish addicts, when maybe we should be supporting them and loving them and encouraging them and helping them.
I believe that the biggest problem with the powerful, ubiquitous psychoactive drugs (meaning those that work on our brains and minds), is that they are so effective. In immediate and powerful ways, they change how we feel, think, relate, and behave. Or transport us away from loneliness and isolation. That is why we use them! It is also why campaigns of “just saying no” are naive and ineffective, and why the dilemma of drug-taking, legal and illicit, has become one of the most dominant societal dilemmas we face in the 21st century.
Dr Sederer, Adjunct Professor, Department of Epidemiology, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, Distinguished Psychiatrist Advisor to the New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) and Director, Columbia Psychiatry Media.
Sources: Rat Park study Wikipedia, What Does “Rat Park” Teach Us About Addiction? – Psychiatric Times
