No abstract

A model of "overdose" deaths among heroin addicts is proposed which emphasizes recent findings concerning the contribution of drug-associated environmental cues to drug tolerance. Results of animal experiments performed to evaluate this model suggest that conditioned drug-anticipatory responses, in addition to pharmacological factors, affect heroin-induced mortality.

These findings demonstrate the importance of Pavlovian conditioning effects on ethanol self-administration and are consistent with conditioned incentive theories of addictive behavior.