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Sandra Montagud has received the recognition 2017-2018 Outstanding PhD award for her thesis “Influence of social stress on the rewarding effects of cocaine”. Her thesis has been directed by professors Marta Rodríguez and José Miñarro of the Department of Psychobiology and members of the Psychobiological Research Unit of Drug Addiction at the University of Valencia.
Montagud graduated in Psychology in 2010 from the University of Valencia and studied the Master’s Degree in Drug Addiction: Research, Treatment and Drug Pathologies (DITPA). Subsequently, she began her doctoral studies while teaching in the degrees of Psychology and Speech Therapy, and participated in seminars of the DITPA Master’s Degree of the University of Valencia.
When she finished her doctorate in 2016, she started working as a researcher at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, where she also taught classes in Human Biology, Criminology and Bioinformatics. Also in Barcelona, she worked with the Foundation Mar Institute for Medical Research. Finally, in 2017 she obtained a postdoctoral fellowship from the Valencian Government.
Her scientific career has focused on the study of social stress as a factor of vulnerability in cocaine use. Currently, her research analyses the cognitive deterioration in the offspring produced by the consumption of ethanol during pregnancy.
Have you encountered any difficulty while undertaking the thesis?
From the beginning, I was very clear to me what doctorate theme I would choose, as since I took the optional subject Addictions of the degree it seemed a very interesting topic and one in which I wanted to work. The difficulties I have encountered have been related to the job itself. When you start a thesis you immerse yourself in a new field, where you have to implement experimental designs, as well as different types of analysis, which you solve little by little and with the help of the colleagues and the thesis directors.
What paths does your thesis leave open?
The results of the research show, for the first time, the influence of age and the effects of social defeat on the rewarding factors of cocaine. We characterise the epigenetic changes that induce social stress in critical brain regions to respond to stress. We demonstrate what changes long-term social stress produces on the main transcription factors of the brain reward system, where we observe a modulation depending on the age at which the subject is exposed to stress. These data indicate that stress is a key factor in the consumption of psychostimulants.
For future work that is currently being done, we leave open the study of the inflammatory system, since both addictive substances and stress produce alterations in it, so we could propose it as an involved mechanism.
What do you think your research contributes to the scientific community as a whole and to society?
The research work I have done during the doctoral thesis offers a broad picture, both in the short and long terms, of how social stress (social defeat) influences the motivational properties of cocaine, and makes an important contribution to knowledge on the effects of stress with respect to drug addiction and behaviour. In addition, we have described possible neurobiological mechanisms that could be involved in this relationship and, also, new pharmacological targets that could modify the effects of stress on the reinforcement produced by the substance. In the coming years, we hope that our basic research will allow us to develop prevention strategies and treatments that reduce the negative influence of stress on addictive disorders.
What applicability can your work have?
Stress is proposed as the disease of the twenty-first century. Social stress is the most frequent stressor that humans face, and causes or aggravates a large number of mental pathologies, which includes drug abuse.
However, the mechanisms by which social stress produces changes in the brain and behaviour are unknown. Although human behaviour cannot be fully represented by preclinical studies, animal models are responsible for more than 90% of all research on neurobiological development.
Knowing the mechanisms involved could favour the development of specific drugs to block the effects of stress and thus prevent the onset and / or increase in the prevalence of other disorders that have been associated with it.
From your experience, do you think that getting a Doctorate facilitates employability?
Employability is independent from getting a Doctorate, since this degree does not assure you to enter the work force in the future. Pursuing a doctorate should be a personal decision that does not involve looking beyond.
Would you recommend starting doctoral studies? What advice would you give to a person who wants to get a PhD?
As long as the person likes to investigate and is motivated, I would recommend doing so. Even so, they should know that it is a long distance race, the road is not easy and many times the results are not as expected. But it is very rewarding when after the effort and the time spent, things start to turn out well.
Have you actively participated in dissemination activities and scientific communication? How important do you think these activities are?
I have participated in numerous national and international conferences, where they have given us the opportunity to present the work done. In addition, together with other colleagues we have developed articles that allow us to disseminate the results we obtain, and their importance, and we have made them reach not only the scientific population, but go beyond. In the end, we investigate issues that affect society thanks to the economic funding that comes from different agencies, generally public. That is why it is important to transmit the results we are getting to have the support and confidence of society in general.
