Abstract
Serotonergic deficiencies have been associated with alcoholism, and increasing serotonin function has been reported to decrease ethanol consumption. In this study, we examined the effects of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, fluvoxamine, upon ethanol self-administration in the rat, and as a test of specificity also examined the effects of fluvoxamine upon food-maintained behavior. Fluvoxamine decreased ethanol-maintained (0.1 ml per dipper presentation, 4–32% w/v ethanol) behavior at lower doses than the doses needed to decrease food-maintained (2 × 45-mg pellet) behavior. Examination of the behavioral interactions of ethanol and fluvoxamine upon food-maintained behavior showed that these observations did not result from synergistic behavioral actions that would occur during ethanol-maintained, but not food-maintained, behavior. Also, fluvoxamine did not alter the potency or efficacy of ethanol to occasion ethanol-appropriate responding in rats trained to discriminate 1.2 g/kg ethanol from vehicle. These findings suggest that fluvoxamine has specific actions upon the reinforcing effects of ethanol.
Footnotes
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Send reprint requests to: Dr. R. J. Lamb, Departments of Psychiatry and Pharmacology, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, Mail Code 7792, 7703 Floyd Curl Dr., San Antonio, TX 78229-3900. E-mail: lamb{at}UTHSCSA.edu
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This work was supported in part by a grant from the Solvay-UpJohn Alliance and by Grants DA 00253 and DA 09064 from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Drug Abuse.
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All procedures were approved by the Animal Care and Use Committee of Allegheny University of the Health Sciences. Preliminary results of this investigation were presented at the Annual College on Problems of Drug Dependence Meeting, June 1996.
- Abbreviations:
- SSRI
- selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor
- 8-OH-DPAT
- 8-hydroxy-2-(di-n-propylamino)tetralin
- FR
- fixed ratio
- Δ9-THC
- tetrahydrocannabinol
- VT
- variable time
- CL
- confidence limit
- 5-HT
- 5-hydroxytryptamine
- Received October 2, 2000.
- Accepted February 8, 2001.
- The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics
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