Social Modification of Amphetamine Reward.

Social modification of drug reward in general and amphetamine reward in particular is reviewed here. The simplest explanation for the social facilitation of drug reward in the conditioned place preference paradigm is the summation of drug and social reinforcing effects. However, experimental reports have shown that sharing a common pharmacological experience, simultaneously or successively, plays a crucial role in the social facilitation of methamphetamine reward. Therefore, social facilitation cannot be the simple summation of drug and social reinforcing effects. Other social factors, such as the dominant/subordinate relation, social defeat, and isolation, also affect drug reward. Because these factors induce stress, they may modulate drug effects through stress-induced mechanisms. However, it is unclear whether these mechanisms are social experience-specific or underlie all aversive experiences producing stress. Mutual modification of social and drug rewards is also discussed.