Failure to establish a conditioned place preference with ethanol in rats.
Previous studies have demonstrated that many drugs of abuse are able to produce a conditioned place preference in rats. We sought to determine if ethanol, injected in a wide range of doses, could also produce a conditioned place preference. Statistical analysis of our results indicated that the IP administration of the drug (50, 100, 150, 300, 600, 800, or 1000 mg/kg) failed to produce either a conditioned place preference or aversion compared to vehicle injected control rats. Under similar testing conditions a conditioned place preference was obtained with amphetamine (2 mg/kg) and this preference was not secondary to conditioned hyperactivity. In another experiment, rats were injected with ethanol through indwelling jugular cannulae at doses similar to those reported [24,26] to support (1, 2 mg/kg) or not to support (8 mg/kg) self-administration by rats. We also failed to obtain a conditioned place preference using these doses. Blood and brain ethanol levels, determined 1, 2 or 5 minutes after the administration of 2 mg/kg (IV) indicated very low ethanol levels. These results may suggest that rats do not self-administer ethanol for its intoxicating properties, and that the affective state produced by ethanol administration per se is not readily conditionable to environmental cues.
D000661:Amphetamine / Q000494:pharmacology; D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000187:drug effects; D003216:Conditioning, Operant / Q000187:drug effects*; D000431:Ethanol / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology*; D007275:Injections, Intravenous; D007700:Kinetics; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D012646:Self Administration
D000431:Ethanol; D000661:Amphetamine