Madangopal, R.; Drake, O. R.; Pham, D. Q.; Lennon, V. A.; Weber, S. J.; Lee, J.; Sobukunola, A.; Holmes, A. R.; Nurudeen, O.; Shaham, Y.; Hope, B. T.

Relapse to opioid use during abstinence is often triggered by drug-associated cues but the persistence of this effect across the lifespan is unknown. Using a rat model, we found that relapse provoked by heroin-predictive discriminative stimuli persisted for over one year of abstinence, suggesting enduring, potentially lifelong opioid relapse vulnerability.