Abstract
After rats were trained to differentiate between the effects of d-amphetamine and saline in a state-dependent task, pretreatment with the tyrosine hydroxylase inhibitor, α-methyl-p-tyrosine, significantly decreased amphetamine discrimination. Pretreatment with the dopamine-Β-hydroxylase inhibitor, disulfiram, or with the tryptophan hydroxylase inhibitor, p-chloro-phenylalanine, was observed to have no effect on the rats' ability to discriminate d-amphetamine. Administration of haloperidol, a selective dopamine receptor blocker, completely abolished the amphetamine discrimination, whereas α- and Β-adrenergic receptor blockade had no effect. Apomorphine, a dopamine receptor stimulant, produced amphetamine-like responses and this was, likewise, abolished by pretreatment with haloperidol. These data suggest that dopaminergic systems mediate the interoceptive cue produced by d-amphetamine in rats, and these results are discussed in relation to possible dopamine mediation of amphetamine psychosis and paranoid schizophrenia.
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Supported as an Americal Medical Association Education and Research Foundation Senior Research Fellow.
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Schechter, M.D., Cook, P.G. Dopaminergic mediation of the interoceptive cue produced by d-amphetamine in rats. Psychopharmacologia 42, 185–193 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00429551
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00429551