Extensive research into addiction has given rise to several models and theories. While there is still much to learn about addiction, we know that factors such as environment, gender, and genetics play an important role in how an addiction develops. Cocaine addiction studies commonly use rats to predict human addiction problems. Studies focusing on cocaine have revealed many of the reasons behind how and why cocaine is addictive and have given us insight into the genetic and psychological factors that contribute to cocaine use. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay “The development of a preference for cocaine over food identifies individual rats with addiction-like behavior” was conducted with the rationale that cocaine addiction is characterized by compulsive drug use that supersedes recreational aspects, work and social life. This study hypothesized that rats' preference for cocaine over food rewards could predict how vulnerable each rat was to addiction. This study used permitted self-administration on a fixed-ratio schedule with cocaine-only, pellet-only, and choice sessions. The rationale for each reward was given at the beginning and end during self-administration using a progressive-ratio schedule. Reinstatement of cocaine and pellet seeking was examined following exposure to the delivered cues. The results of this study showed that rats that preferred cocaine increased their drug intake at the expense of pellets and showed greater motivation for cocaine. Furthermore, women were more likely to develop preferences for cocaine. This study confirms that the choice self-administration paradigm is a valid model of addiction. Sex-specific vulnerability factors were differentiated from generalized sex differences in rat behavior, suggesting that the neurobiology of addiction may differ between sexes. Rats that preferred cocaine showed changes in behavior that mimicked many of the symptoms used in diagnosing addiction in humans, including increased frequency of drug taking and decreased participation in previously enjoyed activities. This experiment was one of the first to demonstrate that preference for cocaine over food rewards may represent an “addict” phenotype. However, other studies have shown that high doses of cocaine are not preferred over food when longer intervals are used (Kerstetter et al., 2012). and disulfiram” is that, although there has been a great deal of research on gender differences in addiction, there are few published reports comparing treatment outcomes for women versus men based on treatments evaluated in randomized clinical trials. The study used a large sample that incorporated data from five randomized clinical trials on the treatment of cocaine addiction. This sample was evaluated for gender differences in clinical outcomes. A secondary analysis compared gender differences in outcomes by treatment condition (disulfiram vs no drug) and across different behavioral treatment settings. Results showed that, compared to men, women had poorer treatment outcomes on multiple measures of cocaine use during treatment and at follow-up...