Britahny Baskin

Boston University | BU · Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics

Background Adverse pathophysiological and behavioral outcomes related to mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and chronic pain are common following blast exposure and contribute to decreased quality of life, but underlying mechanisms and prophylactic/treatment options remain limited. The dynorphin/kappa opioid r...

Despite impressive results from neuroscience research using rodent models, there is a paucity of successful translation from preclinical findings to effective pharmacological interventions for treatment of substance use disorder (SUD) in humans. One potential reason for lack of translation from animal models is difficulty in accurately replicating...

Background Repetitive blast-related mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) caused by exposure to high explosives is increasingly common among warfighters as well as civilians. While women have been serving in military positions with increased risk of blast exposure since 2016, there are few published reports examining sex as a biological variable in mo...

Background Adverse pathophysiological and behavioral outcomes related to mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and chronic pain are common following blast exposure and contribute to decreased quality of life, but underlying mechanisms and prophylactic/treatment options remain limited. The dynorphin/kappa opioid r...

Blast exposure ( via detonation of high explosives) represents a major potential trauma source for Servicemembers and Veterans, often resulting in mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Executive dysfunction (e.g., alterations in memory, deficits in mental flexibility, difficulty with adaptability) is commonly reported by Veterans with a history of bl...

Background Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is common in civilians and highly prevalent among military service members. mTBI can increase health‐risk behaviors (e.g., sensation seeking, impulsivity) and addiction risk (e.g., alcohol use disorder (AUD)), but how mTBI and substance use might interact to promote addiction risk remains poorly underst...

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is common in civilians and highly prevalent among military Servicemembers and in contact sports athletes. mTBI, especially within military populations, is often comorbid with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and can increase health-risk behaviors (e.g., sensation/novelty seeking, impulsivity, risk taking, irr...

RationaleWe probed serotonin neurons, those denoted by their developmental gene expression as r2Hoxa2-Pet1 (experiment 1) and Drd1a-Pet1 (experiment 2), for differential modulation of cocaine reward and memory as revealed by the expression and development of conditioned place preference (CPP) in transgenic mice.Objectives To query roles in CPP, we...

Substance use disorder (SUD) is a chronic, relapsing disease with a highly multifaceted pathology that includes (but is not limited to) sensitivity to drug-associated cues, negative affect, and motivation to maintain drug consumption. SUDs are highly prevalent, with 35 million people meeting criteria for SUD. While drug use and addiction are highly...

Rationale Comorbid use of heroin and cocaine is highly prevalent among drug users and can greatly increase addiction risk. Nonetheless, little is known regarding how a multi-drug history impacts motivation and cue responsivity to individual drugs. Objective We used behavioral-economic procedures to examine motivation to maintain drug consumption a...

Behavioral investigation of motivation and cue senstivity with single verus multi-drug history of heroin and cocaine consumption in rat self-administration models.

Rationale: Research with the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) model of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder demonstrated that chronic methylphenidate treatment during adolescence increased cocaine self-administration established during adulthood under a progressive ratio (PR) schedule. Compared to vehicle, chronic atomoxetine treatment dur...

Aims: Despite high comorbidity of ADHD and cocaine abuse, the consequences of ADHD medications on cocaine abuse risk remain controversial, especially in teenagers. Preclinical work suggests that adolescent methylphenidate (MPH) treatment increases adult cocaine self-administration in the well-validated Spontaneously Hypertensive Rat (SHR) model of...

Past research with the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) model of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder showed that adolescent methylphenidate treatment enhanced cocaine abuse risk in SHR during adulthood. The acquisition of cocaine self-administration was faster, and cocaine dose-response functions were shifted upward under fixed-ratio and p...

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is often comorbid with cocaine abuse. Controversy exists regarding long-term consequences of ADHD medications on cocaine abuse liability. Whereas childhood methylphenidate treatment may be preventative, methylphenidate in teens appears to further increase later cocaine abuse risk. In rodents, adolesce...