Document Type

Honors Paper

Advisor

Joseph Schroeder

Publication Date

2025

Abstract

Anorexia nervosa (AN) has one of the highest mortality rates among psychiatric disorders. This disorder, and other eating disorders, have features that overlap with substance use disorder (SUD), including reward sensitivity, impulsivity, and emotional dysregulation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of chronic, restrictive eating disorders on the development of cocaine-paired environmental preference. Seven-week-old female rats were induced to a model of chronic activity-based-anorexia (ABA) and underwent conditioned place preference (CPP) testing to examine cocaine-paired environmental conditioning. The activity patterns of rats that underwent chronic ABA were not consistent with previous studies inducing chronic ABA in rats. The results of the conditioned place preference test did not show a significant difference between the groups receiving saline vs cocaine. The nucleus accumbens of all rats was sectioned for c-Fos staining but issues with antibody binding prevented analysis.

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The views expressed in this paper are solely those of the author.