Decoding behavioral economics vs. traditional dose response functions in rodent intravenous drug self-administration procedures

Behavioral economics (BE), as applied to intravenous drug self-administration (IVSA) procedures in animals, has been hailed as an advancement in the psychopharmacology of substance use disorders because it evaluates demand intensity and demand elasticity, crucial determinants of addiction-related phenotypes. However, there is still a disconnect in our understanding of BE analyses within the context of traditional analytical strategies for IVSA data for dose response curves. It is important to understand the fundamentals of BE analysis and its relationship to the classic analytical approach, as well as identify relative strengths and weaknesses of each strategy. To address this, the current manuscript presents identical data sets analyzed using traditional dose response curves (DRCs) and the newer BE framework to decode how simulated differences in one analysis relate to the other. First, the fundamentals of each approach are discussed to set a solid foundation for comparison. Then, simulated data sets are analyzed by both procedures to draw correlations and distinctions. Strengths, weaknesses, and caveats of each analysis are discussed, and the lessons learned are used to set best practices for BE study design. The primary fundamental conclusion is that traditional DRCs or BE effort curves should always be presented along with BE demand curves.