Cocaine alters the onset and maintenance of maternal behavior in lactating rats

Cocaine treatment and prenatal environment interact to disrupt intergenerational maternal behavior in rats.

“…Preliminary data in humans suggest that premature babies or babies with low birth weight are physically unattractive and emit disturbing high-pitched, arrhythmic cries, leaving them more susceptible to abuse and neglect (Belsky, 1993;Brunk & Henggeler, 1984). We regard this issue of characteristics of offspring that may lead to poorer social outcomes as very important.Similarly to what has been reported in CC treated dams rearing surrogate pups, in this study, CC treated dams rearing CS or UN exposed pups began crouching later than other dams Johns, Means, et al, 1994;Johns, Noonan, et al, 1998;Kinsley et al, 1994; Vernotica et al, 1996). A previous study reported that maternal behavior (pup retrieval, nesting behavior, or time with pups) of CC treated dams did not differ between groups rearing their own biological offspring or fostered offspring when they were tested for established maternal behavior (Heyser et al, 1992).…”

“…Significant disruptions in maternal behavior following chronic gestational cocaine treatment during pregnancy were reported for the onset or very early post-partum period, and these dams did not display the hyperactivity often seen in acutely treated dams (Heyser, Molina, & Spear, 1992;Kinsley et al, 1994;Peeke, Dark, Salamy, Salfi, & Shah, 1994; Vernotica, Lisciotto, Rosenblatt, & Morrell, 1996). No reports, to our knowledge, have been published on intermittent gestational and postpartum cocaine treatment or the intergeneration effects of such treatment on maternal behavior.…”

“…Their offspring are born blind, unable to thermoregulate, defecate, urinate, or protect themselves from attack (Numan, 1994), thus needing considerable maternal care to survive (Stern, 1997). Behaviorally and neurologically, maternal behavior in the rat has also been relatively well characterized (Numan, 1994;Pedersen, Ascher, Monroe, & Prange, 1982;Pedersen, Caldwell, Walker, Ayers, & Mason, 1994) so that any insult to normal maternal behavior can be easily determined.Maternal separation studies also support a rat intergenerational model of behavior showing that cross-fostering results in behavior of offspring similar to behavior of rearing dams, suggesting a nongenetic transmission of behavior (Francis, Diorio, Liu, & Meaney, 1999;Liu, Caldji, Sharma, Plotsky, & Meaney, 2000), which among other data led us to investigate the presence of intergenerational effects of cocaine use.As far as the literature to date, there is general agreement that acute cocaine treatment in rat dams disrupts both early onset and established pup-directed maternal behavior, while increasing locomotor behavior and stereotypies (Johns, Nelson, et al, 1998;Johns, Noonan, Zimmerman, Li, & Pedersen, 1994;Kinsley et al, 1994; Zimmerberg & Gray, 1992). Significant disruptions in maternal behavior following chronic gestational cocaine treatment during pregnancy were reported for the onset or very early post-partum period, and these dams did not display the hyperactivity often seen in acutely treated dams (Heyser, Molina, & Spear, 1992;Kinsley et al, 1994;Peeke, Dark, Salamy, Salfi, & Shah, 1994; Vernotica, Lisciotto, Rosenblatt, & Morrell, 1996).…”

Cocaine disrupts pup-induced maternal behavior in juvenile and adult rats

“…The intermittent schedule was modeled after a previous study examining behavioral effects of prenatal cocaine exposure on offspring [19] and is designed to model intermittent usage patterns in humans. The IC treatment regimen was employed in addition to the CC treatment as previous research indicated differences in maternal behavior following either acute or intermittent cocaine treatment in dams [20,23,25,50,55] accompanied by differences in oxytocin (OT) system dynamics following the different treatment regimens [7,22]. UN dams were weighed and handled daily, but received no drug treatment.…”

“…It is probable that drug-induced maternal neglect has detrimental effects on the future social and parental behavior of adult children, especially given that many of these children are also prenatally exposed to cocaine. Previous reports using animal models found that gestational and postpartum cocaine treatment cause significant delays and disruptions in various aspects of early maternal behavior in the treated rat dam [16,17,20,23,25,39,50,55] and that rearing condition as well as prenatal cocaine exposure has detrimental effects on the onset of maternal behavior in next generation female offspring [17].…”