Effects of baclofen on conditioned rewarding and discriminative stimulus effects of nicotine in rats.
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| Abstract |
Neurochemical studies suggest that baclofen, an agonist at GABA(B) receptors, may be useful for treatment of nicotine dependence. However, its ability to selectively reduce nicotine's abuse-related behavioral effects remains in question. We assessed effects of baclofen doses ranging from 0.1 to 3mg/kg on nicotine-induced conditioned place preferences (CPPs), nicotine discrimination, locomotor activity and food-reinforced behavior in male Sprague-Dawley rats. The high dose of baclofen (3mg/kg) totally eliminated food-reinforced responding and significantly decreased locomotor activity. Lower doses of baclofen did not have nicotine-like discriminative effects in rats trained to discriminate 0.4mg/kg nicotine from saline under a fixed-ratio 10 schedule of food delivery. Lower doses of baclofen also did not reduce discriminative stimulus effects of the training dose of nicotine and did not significantly shift the dose-response curve for nicotine discrimination. Rats treated with the high 3mg/kg dose of baclofen did not express nicotine-induced CPP. These experiments, along with previous reports that baclofen can reduce intravenous nicotine self-administration behavior, confirm the potential utility of baclofen as a tool for smoking cessation.
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| Authors | Bernard Le Foll, Carrie E Wertheim, Steven R Goldberg |
| Journal | Neuroscience letters (Neurosci Lett) Vol. 443 Issue 3 Pg. 236-40 (Oct 10 2008) ISSN: 0304-3940 [Print] Ireland |
| PMID | 18682277 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't) |
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