Conditioned Place Preference Test for Assessing the Rewarding Effects of Drugs of Abuse

The conditioned place preference (CPP) procedure is used for assessing the rewarding effects of drugs. This is demonstrated when a novel environment becomes associated with a drug’s effects, to the extent that an organism, when given the choice, will prefer to be in that environment. The procedure has been used across numerous drug classes and species. This chapter reviews the approaches to conducting CPP studies, including considerations on equipment setups, training procedures, data analyses, pharmacological manipulations, conditioned place aversion, and other features of place conditioning. The chapter serves as a primer for using this procedure for the study of drugs that produce rewarding or aversive effects.