Investigating Sex Differences and the Effect of Drug Exposure Order in the Sensory Reward-enhancing Effects of Nicotine and D-amphetamine Alone and in Combination

Overview

Journal Neuropharmacology

Specialties Neurology
Pharmacology

Date 2021 Oct 22

PMID 34678376

Citations 2

Authors

Kathleen R McNealy

Sydney D Houser

Scott T Barrett

Rick A Bevins

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Nicotine enhances the rewarding effects of other environmental stimuli; this reward-enhancement encourages and maintains nicotine consumption. Nicotine use precedes other psychostimulant use, but receiving a stimulant prescription also predicts future smoking. Previously, no study has investigated effects of drug exposure order in reward-enhancement, nor with nicotine and d-amphetamine. Thus, we aimed to investigate how drug exposure order impacted the reward-enhancing effects of nicotine and d-amphetamine, alone and in combination. We used 20 male and 20 female Sprague-Dawley rats. Enhancement was investigated within-subjects by examining responding maintained by a visual stimulus reinforcer following a pre-session injection of either d-amphetamine (Sal, 0.1, 0.3, or 0.6 mg/kg) or nicotine (Sal, 0.03, 0.06, 0.1, 0.3 mg/kg). Twenty rats (10 M, 10 F) completed enhancement testing with nicotine before d-amphetamine. The other 20 rats (10 M, 10 F) completed testing with d-amphetamine before nicotine. Following these phases, rats were then given two pre-session injections: one of d-amphetamine (Sal, 0.1, 0.3, or 0.6 mg/kg) and another of nicotine (Sal, 0.03, 0.06, 0.1, or 0.3 mg/kg). Experiencing amphetamine before nicotine increased reward-enhancing effects of nicotine. Females exhibited greater effects of d-amphetamine on reward-enhancement, with no effect of exposure order. During the interaction phase, receiving nicotine before amphetamine enhanced the interaction between nicotine and d-amphetamine for females whereas amphetamine before nicotine heightened this interaction for males. From this, prior and current amphetamine use, in addition to sex, should be considered when treating nicotine dependency and when examining factors driving poly-substance use involving nicotine and d-amphetamine. Keywords: Adderall, ADHD, Dexedrine, operant, smoking, polysubstance use.

Citing Articles

Pavlovian conditioning with the internal stimulus effects of intravenous nicotine heightens later nicotine taking with variation by dose and sex.

Barrett S, McNealy K, Ramirez H, Flynn A, Bevins R Sci Rep. 2025; 15(1):5500.

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The co-use of nicotine and prescription psychostimulants: A review of their behavioral and neuropharmacological interactions.

McNealy K, Weyrich L, Bevins R Drug Alcohol Depend. 2023; 248:109906.

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Sved A, Caggiula A, Donny E Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2022; 240(3):417-430.

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