Psychology Commons^™

Renewal In The Context Of Stress: A Potential Mechanism Of Stress-Induced Reinstatement, Scott Timothy Schepers

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

In the animal laboratory, stressors can produce the relapse of drug-seeking behaviors after the behavior has been inhibited by extinction. This type of relapse has been called stress-induced reinstatement, and it models the relapse that is commonly reported in human populations. Interestingly, in the laboratory, stress does not typically reinstate extinguished behaviors that have been reinforced by food. One account of the discrepancy is that drugs of abuse may induce stress; therefore, when organisms learn to respond for drugs, they might learn to make the response in the “context” of stress. If so, then stress-induced reinstatement may be better described …