Induction of and recovery from tolerance to the discriminative stimulus properties of l-cathinone.
Rats previously trained to discriminate between 0.6 mg/kg l-cathinone and saline in a two-lever, food-motivated operant task were administered l-cathinone at the same dose, every 8 hours for 10 days. Discrimination testing during this chronic administration phase of experimentation indicated that the animals' ability to discriminate both 0.3 and 0.6 mg/kg l-cathinone decreased when compared to their discriminative ability prior to chronic administration. In contrast, discrimination of the non-drug state, i.e., saline, was not affected. Comparison of dose-response curves prior to and during chronic cathinone administration indicated a 3-4 fold shift to the right for the latter curve. Continued testing after termination of chronic treatment resulted in a return to pre-chronic discriminative performance by the fifteenth day after cessation. These results indicate that tolerance to the discriminative effects of l-cathinone can be produced within 10 days of chronic administration and recovery from this observed tolerance occurs within 15 days of cessation of chronic administration.
D000470:Alkaloids / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000818:Animals; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D004361:Drug Tolerance; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains
D000470:Alkaloids; C023665:cathinone