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Effects of acute pramipexole on preference for gambling-like schedules of reinforcement in rats

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Abstract

Rationale

Pramipexole and other direct dopamine agonist medications have been implicated in the development of impulsive behavior such as pathological gambling among those taking the drug to control symptoms of Parkinson’s disease or restless leg syndrome. Few laboratory studies examining pramipexole’s effects on gambling-like behavior have been conducted.

Objectives

The present study used a rodent model approximating some aspects of human gambling to examine within-subject effects of acute pramipexole (0.03, 0.1, 0.18, and 0.3 mg/kg) on rat’s choices to earn food reinforcement by completing variable-ratio (VR; i.e., gambling-like) or fixed-ratio (FR) response requirements.

Results

In a condition in which the VR alternative was rarely selected, all but the lowest dose of pramipexole significantly increased choice of the VR alternative (an average of 15% above saline). The same doses did not affect choice significantly in a control condition designed to evaluate the involvement of nonspecific drug effects. Pramipexole increased latencies to initiate trials (+9.12 s) and to begin response runs on forced-choice trials (VR = +0.21 s; FR = +0.88 s), but did not affect measures of response perseveration (conditional probabilities of “staying”).

Conclusions

The findings are consistent with clinical reports linking pramipexole to the expression of increased gambling in humans. Results are discussed in the context of neurobehavioral evidence suggesting that dopamine agonists increase sensitivity to reward delay and disrupt appropriate feedback from negative outcomes.

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Acknowledgments

The research was supported by a grant from the National Institutes on Health: DA023564, and a report on the work was submitted by the first author in partial fulfillment of a Master of Arts degree from the Department of Applied Behavioral Science at the University of Kansas.

Portions of this research were presented at the 2008 meeting of the Mid-American Association for Behavior Analysis and the 2008 and 2009 meetings of the Association for Behavior Analysis International.

Pramipexole was provided under NIH grant DA 020669 (P.I., James H. Woods, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor). Jonathan Pinkston is now at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Applied Behavioral Science, University of Kansas, 1000 Sunnyside Avenue, Lawrence, KS, 66045, USA

    Patrick S. Johnson, Gregory J. Madden, Adam T. Brewer & Stephen C. Fowler

  2. Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 66045, USA

    Jonathan W. Pinkston & Stephen C. Fowler

Authors
  1. Patrick S. Johnson
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  2. Gregory J. Madden
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  3. Adam T. Brewer
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  4. Jonathan W. Pinkston
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  5. Stephen C. Fowler
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Patrick S. Johnson.

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Preparation of this manuscript was supported by a grant from the National Institutes on Health: DA023564. Reprints may be obtained from the first author.

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Johnson, P.S., Madden, G.J., Brewer, A.T. et al. Effects of acute pramipexole on preference for gambling-like schedules of reinforcement in rats. Psychopharmacology 213, 11–18 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-010-2006-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-010-2006-5

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