Effects of bupropion on nicotine self-administration and food-maintained responding in rats
- UNCW Author/Contributor (non-UNCW co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Dustin J. Stairs (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW )
- Web Site: http://library.uncw.edu/
Abstract: Over the past 40 years various behavioral techniques and pharmaceutical adjuncts have been developed to aid in smoking cessation. The continued need for the development of new and more effective pharmaceutical adjuncts for smoking cessation is evident by the large number of individuals continuing to smoke despite their knowledge of the significant health risks associated with tobacco use. Bupropion recently has been found to be a useful pharmaceutical agent in furthering smoking abstinence, but the long-term effectiveness of the drug is mediocre at best. In order to gain a better understanding of how bupropion affects smoking, the current studies investigated the effects of bupropion in a rodent model of nicotine self-administration. In the nicotine study, subjects self-administered nicotine (0.03 mg/kg/inf) under a fixed-ratio 3 (FR3) 60 s timeout (TO) schedule of reinforcement. The effects of bupropion on food-maintained responding using two levels of food deprivation (food-deprived and food-satiated) were used to assess the specificity of the effects of the drug on nicotine self-administration. Once subjects acquired stable rates of responding, they were pretreated 15 min prior to 60 min sessions with various doses of bupropion (0, 10, 30, 56 mg/kg, IP). The 30 mg/kg dose of bupropion resulted in an increase in nicotine intake while the drug dose-dependently decreased food-maintained behavior under deprivation conditions. When more comparable rates of behavior in the food-satiated group were investigated, bupropion had similar effects on nicotine and food-maintained responding. The current studies indicate that response rate must be considered when evaluating selective effects of drugs. The findings that bupropion can increase moderate rates of nicotine self-administration at doses that decrease higher rates of responding maintained by food suggest that adding alternative reinforcers to the environment of individuals attempting to quit could affect the drug’s ability to sustain abstinence.
Effects of bupropion on nicotine self-administration and food-maintained responding in rats
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Created on 1/1/2009
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Thesis
- A Thesis Submitted to the University of North Carolina Wilmington in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts
- Language: English
- Date: 2009
- Keywords
- Rats, Smoking cessation--Research
- Subjects
- Rats
- Smoking cessation -- Research