@article {Giorla286518, author = {E Giorla and S Nordmann and Y Pelloux and P Roux and S Rosellini and K Davranche and C Montanari and Giorgi Lisa and A Vilotitch and P Huguet and P Carrieri and C Baunez}, title = {Peer presence and familiarity as key factors to reduce cocaine intake: evidence from translational research}, elocation-id = {286518}, year = {2018}, doi = {10.1101/286518}, publisher = {Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory}, abstract = {Stimulant use, including cocaine, is a major public health issue and decreasing intake can reduce associated harms. We used a translational research approach (experimental for rats and observational for humans) to explore the influence of peer presence and familiarity on the frequency of self-administered cocaine. In both rats and humans, we compared cocaine intake when alone with intake when peers with different characteristics (familiar or not, cocaine-naive or not, dominant or subordinate) were present. In both rats and humans, the risk of drug consumption was reduced when a peer was present and further diminished when the peer was unfamiliar (vs familiar). In rats, the presence of a cocaine-naive peer further decreased cocaine consumption.The presence of a non-familiar and drug-naive peer represents key conditions to diminish cocaine intake. Our results indirectly support the use of social interventions and harm reduction strategies, in particular supervised consumption rooms for stimulant users.}, URL = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/11/02/286518}, eprint = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/11/02/286518.full.pdf}, journal = {bioRxiv} }