Summary
The acute administration of morphine sulfate (79 μmoles/kg) or haloperidol (6.65 μmoles/kg) produced catalepsy and concomitant increase in striatal dopamine turnover in rats. The animals made dependent on morphine by 52 morphine injections (maintenance dose of 1056 μmoles/kg/day, given in four daily doses) and then tested during 3 days of withdrawal from morphine, showed tolerance to the cataleptic and the neurochemical effects of morphine as well as those of haloperidol. That tolerance was not seen after 14 days of withdrawal from morphine. The animals chronically treated with haloperidol for 12 days (maintenance dose of 53.2 μmoles/kg/day, given in two daily doses) and then tested 72 h after last haloperidol injection, did not show tolerance to the cataleptic or the neurochemical effect of haloperidol or morphine. These results suggest that dopaminergic systems underlying motor coordination and regulation of the neurotransmitter synthesis are among those susceptible to narcotic action and to the process of tolerance development during aarcotic dependence.
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Puri, S.K., Lal, H. Tolerance to the behavioral and neurochemical effects of haloperidol and morphine in rats chronically treated with morphine or haloperidol. Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's Arch. Pharmacol. 282, 155–170 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00499030
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00499030