The Anti-relapse Compound Acamprosate Inhibits the Development of a Conditioned Place Preference to Ethanol and Cocaine but Not Morphine

Overview

Journal Br J Pharmacol

Publisher Wiley

Specialty Pharmacology

Date 2003 Jan 11

PMID 12522067

Citations 23

Authors

Andrew J McGeehan

M Foster Olive

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The effects of the anti-relapse compound acamprosate (calcium acetylhomotaurinate) on the conditioned rewarding effects of ethanol, cocaine and morphine were studied using the conditioned place preference (CPP) paradigm. During 3 days of drug conditioning, mice were pretreated with saline or acamprosate (30, 100 or 300 mg kg(-1) i.p.) 10 min prior to the administration of ethanol (2 g kg(-1) i.p.), cocaine (15 mg kg(-1) i.p.) or morphine (10 mg kg(-1) i.p.), and subsequently confined to one of two distinct conditioning chambers. On the following day, mice were tested for the expression of CPP. Acamprosate dose-dependently reduced the development of CPP to ethanol and cocaine but not morphine. When tested as the conditioning drug, acamprosate alone produced neither a conditioned place preference nor aversion. These data suggest that acamprosate can suppress the conditioned rewarding effects of ethanol and certain classes of abused substances.

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