Gabapentin (Neurontin®), an anticonvulsant drug, is primarily prescribed for neuropathic pain and epileptic seizures. Gabapentin is an inhibitor of the voltage gated calcium channel (VGCC) subunit α2δ-1. Due to its unique binding site, gabapentin is widely thought to have low abuse potential, and therefore has had increasing prescription rates. Increasing overall use of gabapentin has led to concerns of recreational abuse and polysubstance use with alcohol and opioids. The interoceptive effect similarities between gabapentin and alcohol demand further investigation. Drug discrimination is a standard operant paradigm in which subjects are trained to differentiate between one drug’s subjective effects versus others in an operant task. The proposed study aimed to determine if alcohol may substitute or enhance the drug effects of gabapentin when established as a discriminative stimulus as well as GABAA and NMDA ligands. Ten female Sprague-Dawley rats were trained on a drug discrimination paradigm using a 300.0 mg/kg gabapentin training dose as a discriminative stimulus. Gabapentin was successfully established as a discriminative stimulus with full substitution (> 80% drug-lever responding) for the training dose and 100.0 mg/kg. The GABAA receptor agonist muscimol and NMDA noncompetitive receptor antagonist MK-801 partially substituted for the gabapentin discriminative stimulus. NMDA receptor agonism attenuated the effects of gabapentin. Ethanol partially substituted for gabapentin and potentiated gabapentin’s stimulus effects in combination testing. The results indicate partial overlap of the stimulus effects between gabapentin and GABAA and NMDA ligands.
","abstract_html":"<p>Gabapentin (Neurontin®), an anticonvulsant drug, is primarily prescribed for neuropathic pain and epileptic seizures. Gabapentin is an inhibitor of the voltage gated calcium channel (VGCC) subunit α<sub>2</sub>δ-1. Due to its unique binding site, gabapentin is widely thought to have low abuse potential, and therefore has had increasing prescription rates. Increasing overall use of gabapentin has led to concerns of recreational abuse and polysubstance use with alcohol and opioids. The interoceptive effect similarities between gabapentin and alcohol demand further investigation. Drug discrimination is a standard operant paradigm in which subjects are trained to differentiate between one drug’s subjective effects versus others in an operant task. The proposed study aimed to determine if alcohol may substitute or enhance the drug effects of gabapentin when established as a discriminative stimulus as well as GABA<sub>A</sub> and NMDA ligands. Ten female Sprague-Dawley rats were trained on a drug discrimination paradigm using a 300.0 mg/kg gabapentin training dose as a discriminative stimulus. Gabapentin was successfully established as a discriminative stimulus with full substitution (> 80% drug-lever responding) for the training dose and 100.0 mg/kg. The GABA<sub>A </sub>receptor agonist muscimol and NMDA noncompetitive receptor antagonist MK-801 partially substituted for the gabapentin discriminative stimulus. NMDA receptor agonism attenuated the effects of gabapentin. Ethanol partially substituted for gabapentin and potentiated gabapentin’s stimulus effects in combination testing. The results indicate partial overlap of the stimulus effects between gabapentin and GABA<sub>A </sub>and NMDA ligands.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Donar, Andrew"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Science","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"Psychological Science","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Adam Prus"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2026,"date_issued":"2026-05-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2026-05-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:24:38Z","subjects":["Gabapentin","Psychopharmacology","Neuroscience","Addiction","Alcohol","Psychology","Drug Discrimination","GABA","NMDA","Behavior and Behavior Mechanisms","Biological Psychology"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/911","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Adam Prus"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Donar, Andrew"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2031-04-02T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Psychological Science"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Science"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Gabapentin","Psychopharmacology","Neuroscience","Addiction","Alcohol","Psychology","Drug Discrimination","GABA","NMDA","Behavior and Behavior Mechanisms","Biological Psychology"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/911"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Gabapentin (Neurontin®), an anticonvulsant drug, is primarily prescribed for neuropathic pain and epileptic seizures. Gabapentin is an inhibitor of the voltage gated calcium channel (VGCC) subunit α2δ-1. Due to its unique binding site, gabapentin is widely thought to have low abuse potential, and therefore has had increasing prescription rates. Increasing overall use of gabapentin has led to concerns of recreational abuse and polysubstance use with alcohol and opioids. The interoceptive effect similarities between gabapentin and alcohol demand further investigation. Drug discrimination is a standard operant paradigm in which subjects are trained to differentiate between one drug’s subjective effects versus others in an operant task. The proposed study aimed to determine if alcohol may substitute or enhance the drug effects of gabapentin when established as a discriminative stimulus as well as GABAA and NMDA ligands. Ten female Sprague-Dawley rats were trained on a drug discrimination paradigm using a 300.0 mg/kg gabapentin training dose as a discriminative stimulus. Gabapentin was successfully established as a discriminative stimulus with full substitution (> 80% drug-lever responding) for the training dose and 100.0 mg/kg. The GABAA receptor agonist muscimol and NMDA noncompetitive receptor antagonist MK-801 partially substituted for the gabapentin discriminative stimulus. NMDA receptor agonism attenuated the effects of gabapentin. Ethanol partially substituted for gabapentin and potentiated gabapentin’s stimulus effects in combination testing. The results indicate partial overlap of the stimulus effects between gabapentin and GABAA and NMDA ligands.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Gabapentin Discriminative Stimulus Effects"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Adam Prus"],"dc:creator":["Donar, Andrew"],"dc:date.available":["2031-04-02T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Gabapentin (Neurontin®), an anticonvulsant drug, is primarily prescribed for neuropathic pain and epileptic seizures. Gabapentin is an inhibitor of the voltage gated calcium channel (VGCC) subunit α2δ-1. Due to its unique binding site, gabapentin is widely thought to have low abuse potential, and therefore has had increasing prescription rates. Increasing overall use of gabapentin has led to concerns of recreational abuse and polysubstance use with alcohol and opioids. The interoceptive effect similarities between gabapentin and alcohol demand further investigation. Drug discrimination is a standard operant paradigm in which subjects are trained to differentiate between one drug’s subjective effects versus others in an operant task. The proposed study aimed to determine if alcohol may substitute or enhance the drug effects of gabapentin when established as a discriminative stimulus as well as GABAA and NMDA ligands. Ten female Sprague-Dawley rats were trained on a drug discrimination paradigm using a 300.0 mg/kg gabapentin training dose as a discriminative stimulus. Gabapentin was successfully established as a discriminative stimulus with full substitution (> 80% drug-lever responding) for the training dose and 100.0 mg/kg. The GABAA receptor agonist muscimol and NMDA noncompetitive receptor antagonist MK-801 partially substituted for the gabapentin discriminative stimulus. NMDA receptor agonism attenuated the effects of gabapentin. Ethanol partially substituted for gabapentin and potentiated gabapentin’s stimulus effects in combination testing. The results indicate partial overlap of the stimulus effects between gabapentin and GABAA and NMDA ligands.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/911"],"dc:subject":["Gabapentin","Psychopharmacology","Neuroscience","Addiction","Alcohol","Psychology","Drug Discrimination","GABA","NMDA","Behavior and Behavior Mechanisms","Biological Psychology"],"dc:title":["Gabapentin Discriminative Stimulus Effects"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Psychological Science"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Science"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:24:38Z"}