Behavioural Brain Research
October 10, 2011
A Galanopoulos, Alexia Polissidis, Z Papadopoulou-Daifoti et al.
Endocannabinoids are involved in excitatory neurotransmission initiated by glutamate and aspartate. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of the cannabinoid agonists, Δ(9)-THC and WIN55,212-2, on tissue (prefrontal cortex, dorsal striatum, nucleus accumbens, hippocampus, amygdala and hypothalamus) levels of glutamate and aspartate in two rat phenotypes, high responders...
Current Drug Abuse Reviews
November 2008
George Panagis, Styliani Vlachou, George G. Nomikos
Cannabis preparations as recreational drugs are the most widely used illicit drugs in the world. Although cannabis derivatives produce clear subjective motivational responses in humans leading to drug-seeking behavior and in a specific proportion in repeated drug use, the reinforcing/rewarding attributes of these subjective effects are difficult to define in experimental animals. This led to...
Behavioural Pharmacology
September 2005
J M Witkin, Eleni T. Tzavara, George G. Nomikos
Mood and anxiety disorders, the most prevalent of the psychiatric disorders, cause immeasurable suffering worldwide. Despite impressive advances in pharmacological therapies, improvements in efficacy and side-effect profiles are needed. The present literature review examines the role that the endocannabinoid system may play in these disorders and the potential value of targeting this system in...
Psychopharmacology
May 2005
Styliani Vlachou, George G. Nomikos, George Panagis
Addictive drugs have a number of commonalities in animal behavioral models. They lower intracranial self-stimulation (ICSS) thresholds, support self-administration, and produce conditioned place preference (CPP). However, cannabinoids appear atypical as drugs of abuse, since there are controversial data in the literature concerning their reinforcing properties. The aim of the present study was...
Synapse
2005
Luciano Minuzzi, George G. Nomikos, Mark Wade et al.
25 citations
The psychoactive properties of the hallucinogen LSD have frequently been attributed to high affinity interactions with serotonin 5HT2 receptors in brain. Possible effects of LSD on dopamine D2/3 receptor availability have not previously been investigated in living brain. Therefore, we used PET to map the binding potential (pB) of [11C]raclopride in brain of three pigs, first in a baseline...
Science
November 21, 2003
Per Svenningsson, Eleni T. Tzavara, Robert Carruthers et al.
312 citations
Three distinct classes of drugs: dopaminergic agonists (such as D-amphetamine), serotonergic agonists (such as LSD), and glutamatergic antagonists (such as PCP) all induce psychotomimetic states in experimental animals that closely resemble schizophrenia symptoms in humans. Here we implicate a common signaling pathway in mediating these effects. In this pathway, dopamine- and an adenosine...