Discriminative stimulus properties of d-amphetamine-pentobarbital combinations

Effects of amphetamine-CNS depressant combinations and of other CNS stimulants in four-choice drug discriminations

Three pigeons were trained to discriminate among 5 mg/kg pentobarbital, 2 mg/kg amphetamine, a combination of these two drugs at these doses, and saline using a four-choice procedure (amphetamine-pentobarbital group). Three other pigeons were trained to discriminate among 5 mg/kg morphine, 2 mg/kg methamphetamine, a combination of these two drugs at these doses, and saline (methamphetamine-morphine group). After 10 to 13 months of training, the pigeons averaged more than 90% of their responses on the appropriate key during training sessions. In subsequent testing, dose-response curves were determined for the individual drugs, for a wide range of dose combinations of the training drugs, and for two drugs to which the pigeons had not been exposed previously (pseudoephedrine and nicotine). After low test doses of the training drugs, pigeons responded on the saline key. As the dose increased, responding on the key associated with that drug during training sessions increased. When training drugs were combined at doses that were not discriminable when given alone, responding occurred on the saline key. When a discriminable dose of one training drug was combined with a nondiscriminable dose of the other training drug, responding occurred on the key associated with the discriminable dose. When both drugs were given at discriminable doses, responding almost always occurred on the drug-combination key. The response-rate decreasing effects of pentobarbital and amphetamine were mutually antagonized when the drugs were combined, but the rate-decreasing effects of morphine and methamphetamine were not. After low doses of pseudoephedrine and nicotine, pigeons in both groups responded on the saline key. After higher doses of pseudoephedrine and nicotine, responding in the amphetamine-pentobarbital group occurred primarily on the amphetamine key. In the methamphetamine-morphine group, higher doses of pseudoephedrine and especially nicotine engendered more responding on the combination key than had occurred in the other group. The four-choice procedure can reveal subtle effects in the discrimination of individual drugs and drug combinations that are not apparent with procedures offering fewer response alternatives.

Attenuation of the amphetamine discriminative cue in rats with the atypical antipsychotic olanzapine

Sixteen male Sprague-Dawley rats were trained to discriminate between saline and amphetamine injections (1.0 mg/kg ip) using a standard two-lever (FR10) drug discrimination paradigm. A baseline dose-effect curve was generated for amphetamine administration alone, using doses both above and below the training dose (0.0-2.2 mg/kg ip). Once completed, a single dose of olanzapine (OLZ; 1.5 mg/kg sc) was tested for its ability to attenuate the amphetamine cue. OLZ pretreatment (60 min) successfully interfered with an animal's ability to discriminate amphetamine injections across various doses. The percentage of correct responding on the amphetamine lever and rate of responding were both significantly decreased across some but not all of the amphetamine doses. Therefore, we believe that this preliminary investigation has successfully shown that an OLZ dose of 1.5 mg/kg sc at 60 min can interfere with an animal's ability to detect some subjective cue(s) associated with amphetamine administration.

Drug discrimination under concurrent variable-ratio variable-ratio schedules

Pigeons were trained to discriminate 5 mg/kg pentobarbital from saline under concurrent variable-ratio (VR) VR schedules, in which responses on the pentobarbital-biased lever were reinforced under the VR schedule with the smaller response requirements when pentobarbital was given before the session, and responses on the saline-biased key were reinforced under the VR schedule with the larger response requirements. When saline was administered before the session, the reinforcement contingencies associated with the two response keys were reversed. When responding stabilized under concurrent VR 20 VR 30, concurrent VR 10 VR 40, or concurrent VR 5 VR 50 schedules, pigeons responded almost exclusively on the key on which fewer responses were required to produce the reinforcer. When other doses of pentobarbital and other drugs were substituted for the training dose, low doses of all drugs produced responding on the saline-biased key. Higher doses of pentobarbital and chlordiazepoxide produced responding only on the pentobarbital-biased key, whereas higher doses of ethanol and phencyclidine produced responding only on this key less often. d-Amphetamine produced responding primarily on the saline-biased key. When drugs generalized to pentobarbital, the shape of the generalization curve under concurrent VR VR schedules was more often graded than quantal in shape. Thus, drug discrimination can be established under concurrent VR VR schedules, but the shapes of drug-discrimination dose-response curves under concurrent VR VR schedules more closely resemble those seen under interval schedules than those seen under fixed-ratio schedules. Graded dose-response curves under concurrent VR VR schedules may relate to probability matching and difficulty in discriminating differences in reinforcement frequency.

Drug discrimination under two concurrent fixed-interval fixed-interval schedules

Pigeons were trained to discriminate 5.0 mg/kg pentobarbital from saline under a two-key concurrent fixed-interval (FI) 100-s FI 200-s schedule of food presentation, and later tinder a concurrent FI 40-s FI 80-s schedule, in which the FI component with the shorter time requirement reinforced responding on one key after drug administration (pentobarbital-biased key) and on the other key after saline administration (saline-biased key). After responding stabilized under the concurrent FI 100-s FI 200-s schedule, pigeons earned an average of 66% (after pentobarbital) to 68% (after saline) of their reinforcers for responding under the FI 100-s component of the concurrent schedule. These birds made an average of 70% of their responses on both the pentobarbital-biased key after the training dose of pentobarbital and the saline-biased key after saline. After responding stabilized under the concurrent FI 40-s FI 80-s schedule, pigeons earned an average of 67% of their reinforcers for responding under the FI 40 component after both saline and the training dose of pentobarbital. These birds made an average of 75% of their responses on the pentobarbital-biased key after the training dose of pentobarbital, but only 55% of their responses on the saline-biased key after saline. In test sessions preceded by doses of pentobarbital, chlordiazepoxide, ethanol, phencyclidine, or methamphetamine, the dose-response curves were similar under these two concurrent schedules. Pentobarbital, chlordiazepoxide, and ethanol produced dose-dependent increases in responding on the pentobarbital-biased key as the doses increased. For some birds, at the highest doses of these drugs, the dose-response curve turned over. Increasing doses of phencyclidine produced increased responding on the pentobarbital-biased key in some, but not all, birds. After methamphetamine, responding was largely confined to the saline-biased key. These data show that pigeons can perform drug discriminations under concurrent schedules in which the reinforcement frequency under the schedule components differs only by a factor of two, and that when other drugs are substituted for the training drugs they produce dose-response curves similar to the curves produced by these drugs under other concurrent interval schedules.

Drug discrimination under a concurrent fixed-ratio fixed-ratio schedule

Pigeons were trained to discriminate 5.0 mg/kg pentobarbital from saline under a two-key concurrent fixed-ratio 10 fixed-ratio 40 schedule of food presentation, in which the fixed-ratio component with the lower response requirement was programmed to reinforce responding on one key after drug administration (pentobarbital-biased key) and on the other key after saline administration (saline-biased key). After responding stabilized, pigeons averaged 98% of their responses on the pentobarbital-biased key during training sessions preceded by pentobarbital, and they averaged 90% of their responses on the saline-biased key during training sessions preceded by saline. In test sessions preceded by doses of pentobarbital, chlordiazepoxide, or ethanol, pigeons switched from responding on the saline-biased key at low doses to responding on the pentobarbital-biased key at higher doses (the dose-response curve was quantal). High doses of phencyclidine produced responding on both keys, whereas pigeons responded almost exclusively on the saline-biased key after all doses of methamphetamine. These and previous experiments using concurrent reinforcement schedules to study drug discrimination illustrate that the schedule of reinforcement is an important determinant of the shape of dose-effect curves in drug-discrimination experiments.

The effects of drug discrimination history on drug discrimination and on punished and unpunished responding

Pigeons trained to discriminate methamphetamine from saline after a history of training to discriminate pentobarbital from saline responded on the drug key after both pentobarbital and methamphetamine, but the association of these drugs by reinforcing their discriminative stimulus responses on the same key did not influence their effects on either punished or unpunished responding. Similarly, pigeons trained to discriminate morphine from saline after a history of discrimination of buspirone from saline, responded on the drug key after both buspirone and morphine, but the association of their discriminative stimulus responses did not influence their effects on either punished or unpunished responding. Whether the effects of these drugs as discriminative stimuli, or their effects on punished and unpunished responding were studied first in the session did not influence the effects of these drugs. Low doses of methamphetamine or pentobarbital did not produce responding on the drug key in birds trained to discriminate higher doses of both drugs, but combinations of these doses did produce responding on the drug key. However, these combinations of low doses of methamphetamine with pentobarbital did not increase the rate-increasing effects of pentobarbital on punished responding.

Drug discrimination under a concurrent fixed-interval fixed-interval schedule

Pigeons were trained to discriminate 5.0 mg/kg pentobarbital from saline under a concurrent fixed-interval (FI) FI schedule of food presentation on which, after pentobarbital administration, responses on one key were reinforced with food under an FI 60-s component and responses on the other key were reinforced under an FI 240-s component. After saline administration, the schedule contingencies on the two keys were reversed. After both pentobarbital and saline, pigeons responded more frequently on the key on which responses had been programmed to produce the reinforcer under the FI 60 component of the concurrent schedule. The schedule was changed to concurrent FI 150 FI 150 s for drug-substitution tests. In each bird, increasing doses of pentobarbital, ethanol, and chlordiazepoxide produced increases in the proportion of responses on the key on which responses had been reinforced under the FI 60 component after pentobarbital administration during training sessions. The proportion of responses on that key was slightly lower for ethanol than for chlordiazepoxide and pentobarbital. At a dose of pentobarbital higher than the training dose, responding decreased on the key that had been reinforced under the FI 60 component during training sessions. Phencyclidine produced less responding on the key programmed under the FI 60-s component than did pentobarbital. Methamphetamine produced responding primarily on the key on which responses had been reinforced under the FI 60-s component after saline administration.

Drug-drug discrimination: stimulus properties of drugs of abuse upon a serotonergic-dopaminergic continuum

Ten male N/Nih rats were trained to discriminate between the interoceptive cues produced by the purportedly dopaminergically-mediated drug d-amphetamine at 0.4 mg/kg intraperitoneally administered 20 min prior to training and those produced by the purportedly serotonergically-active agent norfenfluramine at 0.7 mg/kg. Once this discrimination was successfully acquired, the rats were tested with saline and with both drugs administered simultaneously and these manipulations were seen to produce random responding; indicating roughly equivalent cueing strength. Subsequently, various drugs thought to act upon serotonergic neurons, i.e., LSD and MDMA, were tested and shown to generalize in a dose-responsive manner to the norfenfluramine-appropriate lever. In contrast, the dopaminergically-active agent methcathinone and the D3 agonist 7-OH-DPAT produced generalization on the amphetamine-appropriate lever. Results are discussed in light of the increased specificity of behavioral testing available in a drug vs. drug discriminative paradigm using two drugs with different mechanisms of action.

Functional relationships, previous history and the discrimination of a drug mixture in rats

These experiments aim to probe the role of different functional relationships between drugs, responses and reinforcers in studies on the discrimination of drug mixtures. Two-lever discriminations based on mixtures of (+)-amphetamine (0.4 mg/kg) plus pentobarbitone (10 mg/kg) have been compared in three groups of rats (n = 8) trained to discriminate: (i) the mixture from saline, called the AND-discrimination; (ii) either the mixture, amphetamine or pentobarbitone from saline, the OR-discrimination; (iii) the mixture from either amphetamine or pentobarbitone, the AND-OR-discrimination. The rats were trained in a two-bar operant conditioning procedure with a tandem schedule of food reinforcement. The rats trained on the AND procedure acquired the discrimination more rapidly than the rats trained on the other two procedures, but after 60 training sessions, all discriminations were performed with similar (90-94%) accuracy. In rats trained under the AND and the OR procedures, there was full generalization from the mixture to the largest doses used of either amphetamine or pentobarbitone. In contrast, in rats trained under the AND-OR procedure, there was no generalization from the mixture to any dose of either drug separately. The training procedures for the OR and the AND-OR groups were changed to AND-discrimination training; the effects of the different previous histories were found to persist for a prolonged period, despite the fact that training conditions were now the same in all groups. The effects of the drugs on rates of responding were also influenced by the previous training history. Thus, using different training procedures to alter functional relationships can substantially and persistently influence the major characteristics of a discrimination based on a mixture of drugs.

Pharmacotherapy of cocaine abuse: preclinical development

Preclinical models of behavioral and toxic effects of cocaine are reviewed and their potential for predicting compounds with efficacy and safety in the medical management of cocaine abuse and toxicity is assessed. Many of the existing models appear to be good predictors of the effects of compounds against specific behavioral or toxicological actions of cocaine. However, the utility of the models for prediction of the efficacy of new therapeutic entities must await clinical validation as no accepted or standard pharmacotherapy currently exists. Preclinical data generated by these models with drugs currently under clinical investigation for cocaine abuse treatment as well as with other compounds are reviewed. These compounds include buprenorphine, bromocriptine, desmethylimipramine, carbamazepine, dopaminergic agonists, antagonists and partial agonists, dopamine reuptake inhibitors, sigma ligands, serotonin antagonists, and excitatory amino acid antagonists. Preclinical information on several drug classes appears sufficiently promising to warrant further evaluation. These include dopamine agonists and partial agonists, D1 receptor antagonists, selective sigma ligands, and modulators of the N-methyl-D-aspartate subtype glutamate receptor.

Effects of schedule of reinforcement on a pentobarbital discrimination in rats

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of the schedule of reinforcement on a pentobarbital discrimination in rats. Five rats were trained to discriminate 10 mg/kg pentobarbital from saline under a multiple fixed-interval 180-s fixed-ratio 20 schedule of reinforcement. During both saline and pentobarbital training sessions, subjects emitted a higher percentage of correct responses under the fixed-ratio component as compared to the fixed-interval component of the multiple schedule. Determination of the pentobarbital dose-response curve under the fixed-ratio component resulted in a steep curve characterized by responding on the saline lever at low doses and on the drug lever at higher doses. Under the fixed-interval component, a graded dose-effect curve was produced, with considerable responding on both levers after intermediate doses of pentobarbital. The administration of phencyclidine and MK-801 resulted in an intermediate level of drug-lever responding for some subjects. Administration of d-amphetamine resulted in saline (nondrug) appropriate responding. The results of this study demonstrate that the schedule of reinforcement is a determinant of drug stimulus control, just as it is a determinant of other drug effects.

Increased drug sensitivity in the drug discrimination procedure afforded by drug versus drug training

Rats were trained to discriminate norfenfluramine (NF) 1.4 mg/kg from its vehicle or amphetamine (AMPH) 0.8 mg/kg or pentobarbital (PB) 6.0 mg/kg in order to determine the role that drug combination training plays in the rate of learning and sensitivity to lower drug doses. The results suggest that drug versus drug training can increase the rate of drug discrimination learning for some drugs that are learned slowly when trained in a drug versus vehicle training procedure, whereas drug versus drug training does not increase the rate of learning for other drugs that are learned rapidly. Drug versus drug training does, however, appear to increase the level of stimulus control of the training drug for all drugs examined in this study.

Discrimination of an amphetamine-pentobarbitone mixture by rats in an AND-OR paradigm

Rats were trained to discriminate a mixture of amphetamine plus pentobarbitone from either drug separately in a two-bar procedure with food reinforcement. Discrimination was 86% accurate after 48 sessions, and no dose of amphetamine or pentobarbitone alone produced mixture-appropriate responding. Some mixtures increased response rates whereas the same doses of each drug separately had little effect. The same rats were then trained to discriminate a mixture from saline. There was a continuing lack of discriminative response to amphetamine and only a partial response to pentobarbitone, and under these conditions mixtures did not increase overall response rates. Thus, the way rats are trained, and their previous history, can determine the characteristics of the cue obtained.

Interaction of the discriminative stimulus effects of phencyclidine with those of (+)-N-allylnormetazocine, pentobarbital and d-amphetamine

Pigeons trained to discriminate 1.0 mg/kg phencyclidine from saline were used to study the interaction between the stimulus effects of phencyclidine and those of (+)-N-allylnormetazocine [(+) NANM], pentobarbital and d-amphetamine using a cumulative-dosing procedure. Both (+) NANM and pentobarbital enhanced the discriminative stimulus effects of phencyclidine. The enhancement of the phencyclidine stimulus by pentobarbital was predicted by adding the effects of the individual drugs, but the enhancement of the phencyclidine stimulus by (+) NANM was sometimes more than would have been expected from adding the effects of the individual drugs. d-Amphetamine did not enhance the discriminative stimulus effects of phencyclidine, but neither did it interfere with these effects. Combinations of (+) NANM or pentobarbital with phencyclidine also enhanced the rate-decreasing effects of phencyclidine, but to a lesser extent than they enhanced the discriminative stimulus effects of phencyclidine. d-Amphetamine only slightly enhanced the rate-decreasing effects of phencyclidine.

The chlordiazepoxide/pentylenetetrazol discrimination: characterization of drug interactions and homeostatic responses to drug challenges

Rats were trained to discriminate chlordiazepoxide (CDP) from pentylenetetrazol (PTZ) in a two-lever food motivated discrimination task. Training drug doses were adjusted until subjects emitted approximately 50% of their responses on each of the two drug-appropriate levers during saline injection tests. Tests that followed injection of CDP/PTZ combinations illustrated a reciprocal antagonism between the two drugs. Saline-injection tests that followed large dose injections of CDP revealed a period of predominantly PTZ-appropriate responding that persisted after the initial period of predominantly CDP-appropriate responding. These data are interpreted to suggest that, unlike some other drugs that have been shown to antagonize the behavioral and CNS effects of benzodiazepines, the interoceptive stimulus generated by PTZ occupies a position opposite to that of CDP along some single affective continuum. In addition, these data suggest that drug/drug (DD) discriminations are capable of characterizing the interactions between training drugs. Finally, the data suggest that the CDP/PTZ discrimination is a sensitive detector of bidirectional shifts in interoceptive stimulus state along the CDP/PTZ continuum.

Discriminative stimulus effects of N-allylnormetazocine in rats trained to discriminate a kappa from a sigma agonist

Rats were trained to discriminate ethylketocyclazocine (EKC) from vehicle, phencyclidine (PCP) from vehicle, or ethylketocyclazocine from phencyclidine on a two-lever operant task with a fixed-ratio 30 schedule of food-reinforcement on the appropriate lever. The three groups were tested with the training drugs (i.e., EKC and PCP), N-allylnormetazocine (NANM), and the (+)- and (-)-isomers of N-allylnormetazocine. EKC produced EKC-appropriate responding in the EKC-vehicle group and in the EKC-PCP group; it produced vehicle-appropriate responding in the PCP-vehicle group. Similarly, PCP produced PCP-appropriate responding in the PCP-vehicle group and in the EKC-PCP group but vehicle-appropriate responding in the EKC-vehicle group. The (+)-isomer of NANM produced PCP-appropriate responding in both the PCP-VEH and EKC-PCP groups, whereas the (-)-isomer produced EKC appropriate responding in the EKC-VEH and EKC-PCP groups. The results of this study demonstrate that rats can be trained to discriminate a kappa-agonist from a PCP/sigma-agonist and can differentiate these discriminative stimulus properties of other test compounds. These results also indicate that the (-)-isomer of NANM has kappa-agonist discriminative stimulus properties, whereas PCP/sigma-like effects are produced by the (+)-isomer.

Differential modification of pentobarbital stimulus control by d-amphetamine and ethanol

The ability of d-amphetamine and ethanol to alter discriminative stimulus control by pentobarbital was examined in pigeons. Saline and pentobarbital (5.6 mg/kg) were established as discriminative stimuli for food-maintained responding in six birds. Dose-response functions for stimulus control and response rate were determined for pentobarbital alone and in combination with selected doses of d-amphetamine or ethanol. In tests of stimulus generalization, d-amphetamine alone did not exert pentobarbital-like stimulus control, while ethanol alone evoked variable degrees of pentobarbital-like stimulus control. d-Amphetamine attenuated pentobarbital stimulus control. Doses of 1.0 or 3.2 mg/kg d-amphetamine increased the dose of pentobarbital required for stimulus control in five of six birds. Combinations of high d-amphetamine and pentobarbital doses yielded less than additive rate suppression. Ethanol produced variable effects on pentobarbital stimulus control, with moderate doses generally decreasing, and high doses increasing, the dose of pentobarbital required for stimulus control. A high ethanol dose decreased the pentobarbital dose required for rate suppression. Taken together, these data demonstrate that pentobarbital stimulus control can be altered by drugs within or without the sedative hypnotic class.

The effect of training dose on discrimination of compound drug-exteroceptive stimuli

Rats were trained to discriminate between two compound stimulus arrays that included exteroceptive (ES) and interoceptive (IS) stimulus components. The ES components were illumination and tactile cues, and the IS components were produced by d-amphetamine (A) or Na pentobarbital (P) treatment (drug versus drug discrimination). The relative ES-IS strength was then determined by testing with "mismatched" stimulus arrays consisting of combinations of ES and IS components that had not been presented simultaneously during training. Additional tests were done with ES only (no drug treatments). At training doses of 0.8 mg/kg A versus 10 mg/kg P, the ES were less salient than, but did share stimulus control with, the stronger IS components. In a second group, trained with lower doses (0.5 mg/kg A versus 4 mg/kg P), the ES were much more salient than the IS, although again, both types of stimuli did acquire some control. This dose-related sharing of stimulus control between ES and IS components is similar to relationships among components of compound arrays consisting entirely of ES, and thus further illustrates similarity between drug-produced and exteroceptive stimuli.

Drug discrimination procedures: roles of relative stimulus control in two-drug cases

Two groups of five pigeons each were trained to discriminate morphine 5.6 mg/kg vs cocaine 5.6 mg/kg (High dose cocaine group), and morphine 5.6 mg/kg vs cocaine 3.0 mg/kg (Low dose cocaine group), respectively. Within both groups, cocaine dose generalization gradients were radically flatter in comparison to those obtained when the same cocaine dosages were discriminated from saline, whereas morphine gradients, analogously compared, were only moderately so. Responding to non-drug tests did not deviate significantly from random in either group. After lowering morphine training doses to 3.0 mg/kg in a systematic replication of the experiment, training drugs generalization gradients took symmetrical, flattened, shapes in the High dose cocaine group, whereas in the Low dose cocaine group the previous relation between gradients was enhanced. Responding to non-drug tests in this phase did not deviate significantly from random in the High dose cocaine group, whereas the reverse was true with the Low dose cocaine group. Tests with novel drugs (apomorphine, LSD, pentobarbital and delta 9-THC), did not differentiate between the groups. The roles of generalization gradients, non-drug tests and novel drugs tests as measures of relative stimulus control of training stimuli in drug discrimination experiments are discussed within the framework of a drug discrimination model.

Nisoxetine and amphetamine share discriminative stimulus properties in mice

The interaction of amphetamine with noradrenergic neurons could mediate a portion of the drug's discriminative stimulus properties. To test this hypothesis, mice were trained to discriminate 1.0 or 3.2 mg/kg amphetamine, 32 mg/kg of the selective norepinephrine uptake inhibitor, nisoxetine, or 32 mg/kg nisoxetine + 1.0 mg/kg amphetamine from saline. Differential drug- or saline-appropriate responding was determined using a two photocell-beam procedure with beam interruption as the operant. Reinforcement (5-sec access to evaporated milk) was presented on a fixed-ratio 20 (FR-20) schedule. Mice trained to discriminate 1.0 mg/kg amphetamine from saline generalized to nisoxetine (32 mg/kg) alone and to doses of 0.56 mg/kg amphetamine and above but not to lower doses unless pretreated with nisoxetine (20 or 32 mg/kg). Mice trained to discriminate nisoxetine (32 mg/kg) from saline generalized to 0.56, 1.0 and 3.2 mg/kg amphetamine and generalized to all amphetamine doses when pretreated with nisoxetine (32 mg/kg). Mice trained to discriminate the drug combination from saline generalized to nisoxetine (32 mg/kg) alone, and to 3.2 mg/kg amphetamine tested alone, to 0.56 mg/kg of amphetamine or above when the lower dose of nisoxetine (20 mg/kg) was used, and to all test doses of amphetamine with nisoxetine (32 mg/kg) pretreatment. Mice trained to discriminate 3.2 mg/kg amphetamine from saline generalized to no test dose of amphetamine following either saline or nisoxetine (32 mg/kg) pretreatment. Testing with several doses of pentobarbital (1.0, 3.0, 10.0 and 18.0 mg/kg) resulted in saline-appropriate responding regardless of training group.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Acute tolerance to the discriminative stimulus properties of morphine

Two pigeons were trained to discriminate intramuscular injections of 1.0 mg/kg morphine from water by presenting food after keypeck responses on one key when morphine was administered and after responses on a second key when water was administered. Following training, close to 100% of responses occurred on the appropriate key following administration of 1.0 mg/kg morphine or water. Morphine (0.1-5.6 mg/kg) produced dose-dependent increases in the percentage of morphine-appropriate responses (discriminative stimulus properties) and decreases in the rate of responding. A shift to the right of the morphine dose-effect curve for the discriminative stimulus properties of morphine resulted from a single injection of morphine (10.0 mg/kg) 24 hrs prior to testing (i.e., acute tolerance) but not from a single injection of pentobarbital (17.0 mg/kg). Tolerance to the discriminative stimulus properties of morphine was reversible within five days of the single injection. Tolerance did not develop to the effects of morphine on response rate. Naloxone antagonized both the discriminative stimulus properties and the response rate-decreasing effects of morphine. Thus, a single administration of morphine can alter morphine discriminability without affecting other aspects of behavior.

Discriminative stimulus effects of pentobarbital in rhesus monkeys: tests of stimulus generalization and duration of action

Rhesus monkeys were trained to emit 20 or 30 consecutive responses on one lever following an IM injection of pentobarbital (10 or 18 mg/kg) and the same number of consecutive responses on another lever following an injection of saline. The required number of correct consecutive responses in both cases resulted in food delivery. When responding was reliably under the control of the presession injection, the ability of a variety of other compounds to produce pentobarbital-appropriate responding was examined. Diazepam, clobazam, methohexital, pentobarbital, and phenobarbital, given 10 or 20 min before the session, produced dose-related pentobarbital-appropriate responding in each monkey. Ethylketazocine and dextromethorphan produced responding primarily on the saline-appropriate lever, whereas codeine, cyclazocine, dextrorphan, and ketamine resulted in responding that was, on the average, intermediate between that appropriate for pentobarbital and that appropriate for saline. When tested at various times after their injection, methohexital (3.2 mg/kg) and pentobarbital (10 mg/kg) produced pentobarbital-appropriate responding within 10 min. Barbital (56 mg/kg) resulted in pentobarbital-appropriate responding only if at least 1 h intervened between the injection and the experimental session. The discriminative effects of methohexital, pentobarbital, and barbital lasted approximately 20-60, 120-240, and 480-720 min, respectively. The time-course of the discriminative stimulus effects of barbiturates in the rhesus monkey appears to parallel closely other pharmacological actions of these compounds.

Discriminative stimulus effects of pentobarbital in pigeons

Pigeons were trained to discriminate the IM injection of pentobarbital (5 or 10 mg/kg) from saline in a task in which 20 consecutive pecks on one of two response keys produced access to mixed grain. Pentobarbital (1.0--17.8 mg/kg) produced a dose-related increase in the percentage of the total session responses that occurred on the pentobarbital-appropriate key. The concomitant administration of bemegride (5.6--17.8 mg/kg) antagonized the discriminative control of behavior exerted by the training dose of pentobarbital. Benzodiazepines, diazepam (1.0 mg/kg) and clobazam (3.2 mg/kg), and barbiturates, methohexital (10 mg/kg), phenobarbital (56 mg/kg), and barbital (56 mg/kg), produced responding on the pentobarbital-appropriate key similar to that produced by pentobarbital. In contrast, narcotics such as morphine, ethylketazocine, cyclazocine, and SKF-10,047, at doses up to and including those that markedly suppressed response rates, produced responding predominantly on the saline-appropriate key. Similarly, the anticonvulsants, valproate, phenytoin, and ethosuximide occasioned only saline-appropriate behavior, indicating that not all anticonvulsants share discriminative stimulus effects with pentobarbital. Muscimol, a direct GABA agonist, and baclofen, a structural analogue of GABA, also failed to produce pentobarbital-appropriate responding. Ketamine, dextrorphan, and ethanol (0.3--3.2 g/kg, orally) produced intermediate levels of pentobarbital-appropriate responding, suggesting that the discriminative effects of these drugs may be somewhat like those of pentobarbital.