Psychopharmacology

, Volume 53, Issue 1, pp 97–102 | Cite as

Discriminative stimulus properties of fenfluramine in an operant task: An analysis of its cue function

  • A. J. Goudie
Animal Studies Original Investigations
Received:
Accepted:

Abstract

Fenfluramine at a dose of 3.0 mg/kg was found to possess discriminative stimulus properties controlling lever selection by rats in a two-lever operant task. Subjects trained to discriminate the ‘Fenfluramine cue’ failed to generalize to amphetamine in extinction tests at doses between 0.25 and 1.0 mg/kg. Subjects did, however, generalize to the fenfluramine metabolite, norfenfluramine, at a dose of 2.0 mg/kg. These data provide further evidence for a pharmacological difference between fenfluramine and amphetamine, and support the hypothesis that norfenfluramine is an active metabolite of fenfluramine. The relevance of these findings to theoretical and methodological aspects of drug discrimination studies is considered.

Key words

Fenfluramine Norfenfluramine Amphetamine Drug discrimination Stimulus properties of drugs Fixed ratio responding 
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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag 1977

Authors and Affiliations

  • A. J. Goudie
    • 1
  1. 1.Department of PsychologyUniversity of LiverpoolLiverpoolEngland

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