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Using animal models, we (1) characterize sex differences in
the psychopharmacological effects of CNS drugs; and (2) determine how
gonadal steroid hormones such as testosterone and estrogen modulate pain,
mood, and the therapeutic and side-effects of psychoactive drugs such as
stimulants (e.g., cocaine), opioids (e.g., morphine), cannabinoids (e.g,
THC) and barbiturates (e.g., pentobarbital). The clinical applications of
this work are (1) the development of sex-appropriate guidelines for use of
psychotherapeutic, analgesic and anesthetic medications; and (2) improved
prevention and treatment of gonadal steroid hormone-mediated pain and
depression.
For more information on my lab go to
http://www.wsu.edu/~craft/index.html
Biographical Information
Rebecca M. Craft,
Associate Professor, completed the B.S. degree in animal science at the
University of Maryland in 1981, the M.S. degree in zoology (animal behavior)
at North Carolina State University in 1984, and the Ph.D. degree in
experimental and biological psychology at the University of North Carolina in
1991. She was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Pharmacology at the
University of Arizona and has been at Washington State University since 1993.
Selected Publications
Craft RM:
Sex differences in opioid analgesia: ‘from mouse to man.’ Clinical
Journal of Pain 19:175-186, 2003.
Craft RM,
Morgan MM and Lane DA: Estradiol dampens reflex-related activity of on- and
off-cells in the rostral ventromedial medulla of female rats.
Neuroscience 125:1061-1068, 2004.
Craft RM,
Mogil JS and Aloisi AM: Sex differences in pain and analgesia: the role of
gonadal hormones. European Journal of Pain 8:397-411, 2004.
Stoffel EC and Craft RM: Ovarian hormone
withdrawal-induced “depression” in female rats. Physiology and Behavior
83:505-513, 2004.
Craft RM:
Sex differences in behavioral effects of cannabinoids. Life Sciences
77:2471-2478, 2005.
Craft RM
and Leitl MD: Potentiation of morphine antinociception by pentobarbital in
female vs. male rats. Pain 121:115-125, 2006.
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