Skip to content

Discriminative stimulus properties of mescaline: Mescaline or metabolite?

Ronald G. Browne, Beng T. Ho

Pharmacology, Biochemistry, and Behavior 1975 DOI: 10.1016/0091-3057(75)90088-x (opens in new tab)

Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Animal experiment Peer reviewed
Population Rats
Interventions mescaline 3 4 5-trimethoxyphenylethanol (TMPE) 5-trimethoxyphenylacetaldehyde (TMPA) N-acetylmescaline saline aldehyde dehydrogenase inhibitors amine oxidase inhibitors
Dose 25 mg/kg
Topics Mescaline
Keywords Metabolite Aldehyde dehydrogenase Saline Stimulus generalization Pharmacology
Citations 10
Key findings Neither TMPE, TMPA, nor N-acetylmescaline generalized to the mescaline discriminative stimulus in rats, indicating that a metabolite does not mediate the interoceptive cue produced by mescaline.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate possible similarities in the interoceptive stimuli produced by mescaline and its metabolites. Rats were trained in a 2 lever operant chamber to discriminate between the drugged state (mescaline 25 mg/kg) and the nondrugged state (saline). Following acquisition of discriminative response control the rats were pretreated with either saline, aldehyde dehydrogenase inhibitors or amine oxidase inhibitors and tested stimulus generalization produced by i.p. injections of 3, 4, 5-trimethoxyphenylethanol (TMPE), 3, 4, 5-trimethoxyphenylacetaldehyde (TMPA), N-acetylmescaline, mescaline or saline. The results indicated that both aldehyde dehydrogenase and amine oxidase inhibitors enhanced the effects of mescaline, while TMPE, TMPA and N-acetylmescaline failed to exhibit generalization to the mescaline state, regardless of pretreatment. These findings do not indicate the role of a metabolite in the interoceptive cue produced by mescaline.

Comparable studies

Other preclinical and animal studies on mescaline, most cited first.

Study Year Design Participants
Correlation between the potency of hallucinogens in the mouse head-twitch response assay and their behavioral and subjective effects in other species. C57BL/6J mice 2020 Experimental study with dose-response experiments
Brain mechanisms of hallucinogens and entactogens Humans and rats 2001 Review
Effects of hallucinogenic agents mescaline and phencyclidine on zebrafish behavior and physiology Zebrafish (Danio rerio) 2012 Experimental study
Lysergic Acid Diethylamide- and Mescaline-Induced Attenuation of the Effect of Punishment in the Rat Rats 1976 Experimental study
Dihydrobenzofuran Analogues of Hallucinogens. 3. Models of 4-Substituted (2,5-Dimethoxyphenyl)alkylamine Derivatives with Rigidified Methoxy Groups Rats (trained to discriminate saline from LSD tartrate) and rat cortical and... 1996 In vivo drug discrimination assay and in vitro radioligand binding assay

Citations in the library

Explore topics