Discriminative Stimulus Effects of Gabapentin

<p>The present study sought to evaluate the discriminative stimulus effects of the anticonvulsant gabapentin in rats trained to discriminate 30.0 mg/kg gabapentin from vehicle in a two-lever drug discrimination task. All of the ten rats tested were able to establish gabapentin as an interoceptive cue. Gabapentin produced full generalization (≥ 80% gabapentin-lever responding) for itself at 30.0, 60.0, and 120.0 mg/kg doses. Pentobarbital produced full substitution, while pregabalin, carbamazepine, fentanyl, and buspirone produced partial substitution (≥ 60% gabapentin-lever responding) for gabapentin. Ethanol and raclopride did not substitute for gabapentin. The psychostimulant amphetamine did not produce substitution; however, the 0.25 mg/kg dose of amphetamine fully substituted in five of ten rats. Based on these findings, some depressant (i.e., pentobarbital and fentanyl), anxiolytic (i.e., buspirone), and anticonvulsant compounds (i.e., pregabalin and carbamazepine) produce full or partial substitution to 30.0 mg/kg gabapentin. Additionally, the dopamine releaser amphetamine also produced full substitution in half of the rats tested. Many of the compounds that produced substitution in this study are controlled substances capable of producing rewarding subjective effects. The substitution demonstrated in this study coincides with the past reports of poly-drug misuse, indicating the ability of gabapentin to modulate neurotransmitter pathways involved in positive drug effects. Thus, these modulatory effects should be considered by clinicians and researchers when working with gabapentin.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychological Science

Year dc:date.available

2018

Author dc:creator

• Zuidema, Michael

Contributors dc:contributor

• Dr. Adam Prus

• drug discrimination
• gabapentin
• rats
• discriminative stimulus
• Experimental Analysis of Behavior

Repository record dc:identifier

https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/544

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:commons.nmu.edu:theses-1200