Characteristics of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)-produced discrimination in rats
T. U. C. Järbe, J. O. Johansson, B. G. Henriksson
Psychopharmacology 1976 DOI: 10.1007/bf00423258 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Animal experiment Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Rats |
| Interventions | Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) pentobarbital sodium hashish smoke AMPT PCPA |
| Topics | Cannabis |
| Keywords | Tetrahydrocannabinols Pentobarbital Hashish smoke State dependency T-maze Acquisition Dose relationship Ed Ampt Pcpa Rats |
| Citations | 40 |
| Key findings | THC discrimination in rats was dose-dependent, with higher training doses producing faster acquisition and higher ED₅₀ values, and neither catecholamine nor serotonin depletion affected Δ⁹-THC discrimination. |
Abstract
Rats were trained in a T-shaped maze to discriminate the effects produced by i.p. injections of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and the no-drug state (state-dependency, StD). Several doses of both Δ^8-THC (range: 0.75–5.0 mg/kg) and Δ^9-THC (range: 0.75–10.0 mg/kg) were used in order to compare the number of sessions required by the animals until reaching criterion performance. An additional group of rats had to discriminate pentobarbital sodium (20.0 mg/kg) from the no-drug state. Results: THC discrimination was proportional to dose i.e., animals that had to differentiate high doses of THC from no drug acquired the T-maize task faster than animals trained with the lower doses of THC. Acquisition data further suggest that Δ^8-THC is somewhat less potent than the Δ^9-isomer. Δ^9-THC (10.0 mg/kg) produces strong StD, as defined by Overton (1971), since both this group and the barbiturate group reached the criterion within the first 10 training sessions. Time and dose testings suggest that stimulus properties of drugs vary in a quantitative way and that the calculated ED_50 values are mainly determined by the training dose used. It was found that the higher the training dose used the higher was the corresponding ED_50 value. Hashish smoke can maintain drug responding among THC-trained rats. A lowered content of brain catecholamines and/or serotonin, induced by AMPT (150 mg/kg) and PCPA (310–350 mg/kg), did not lessen Δ^9-THC (2.5 mg/kg) discrimination.
Comparable studies
Other preclinical and animal studies on cannabis, most cited first.
Citations in the library
Cited by 5
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- Novel GPR18 Ligands in Rodent Pharmacological Tests: Effects on Mood, Pain, and Eating Disorders. International Journal of Molecular Sciences May 20, 2023
- Interactions between delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol and cannabidiol as evaluated by drug discrimination procedures in rats and pigeons. Neuropharmacology February 1986
- Discriminative stimulus properties and brain distribution of phencyclidine in rats following administration by injection and smoke inhalation. Pharmacology, Biochemistry, and Behavior October 1985
- LDS-25 as a discriminative stimulus for response selection by pigeons. Pharmacology, Biochemistry, and Behavior October 1980