Reinforcing Effects of MDMA (‘Ecstasy’) in Drug-Naive and Cocaine-Trained Rats
Elisabeth Ratzenboeck, Alois Saria, Norbert Kriechbaum, Gerald Zernig
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Experimental study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Rats |
| Interventions | MDMA cocaine |
| Dose | 0.032–10 mg/(kg·injection) |
| Topics | Addiction MDMA |
| Keywords | Hallucinogen Pharmacology Population Drugs of abuse Anesthesia |
| Citations | 97 |
| Key findings | MDMA's reinforcing effect did not differ between drug-naive and cocaine-trained rats, and MDMA and cocaine produce distinct interoceptive stimuli. |
Abstract
3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA; ‘ecstasy’) is one of the most prevalent illegal drugs of abuse among European adolescents, a population not generally experienced with respect to ‘hard’ drugs such as cocaine. We, therefore, determined the reinforcing effect of intravenously self-administered MDMA in a fixed ratio 1 time-out 150 s schedule of reinforcement in rats that were truly drug naive and compared it to cocaine-trained rats. The reinforcing effect of MDMA [0.032–10 mg/(kg·injection)] did not differ between drug-naive rats and cocaine-trained ones. MDMA sensitized the animals to its own rate-increasing effect but not to that of cocaine. When MDMA was tested after cocaine, there was no carryover of cocaine’s reinforcing effect to that of MDMA, suggesting that MDMA and cocaine produce distinct interoceptive stimuli in rats.