Drug discrimination studies with MDMA and amphetamine.
Robert Oberlender, D E Nichols
Psychopharmacology 1988 DOI: 10.1007/bf00212770 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Animal drug discrimination study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Rats |
| Interventions | MDMA hydrochloride S-(+)-amphetamine sulfate S-(+)-MDMA (+/-)-MDA S-(+)-MBDB (+/-)-MBDB R-(-)-MDMA R-(-)-MBDB (+/-)-methamphetamine LSD DOM |
| Dose | MDMA hydrochloride 1.75 mg/kg; S-(+)-amphetamine sulfate 1.0 mg/kg |
| Topics | MDMA |
| Key points | The MDMA discriminative cue generalized completely to S-(+)-MDMA, S-(+)-amphetamine, (+/-)-MDA, S-(+)-MBDB, (+/-)-MBDB, R-(-)-MDMA, and R-(-)-MBDB, but not to LSD or DOM, while the amphetamine cue generalized only to methamphetamine. The authors argue that MDMA and MBDB share a discriminative stimulus component distinct from both stimulants and hallucinogens, and that amphetamine-like stimulant activity is not necessary for sharing MDMA's cue. |
Abstract
The term entactogen has recently been introduced to describe a new pharmacological class of compounds best represented by 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, MDMA, and its alpha-ethyl homologue MBDB. The present study was designed to test the similarities of the discriminative stimulus properties produced by MDMA and MBDB, as well as to elaborate further the distinction between entactogens, hallucinogens and stimulants. Two groups of rats were trained to discriminate saline from either racemic MDMA hydrochloride (1.75 mg/kg) or S-(+)-amphetamine sulfate (1.0 mg/kg) in a two-lever drug discrimination task. The (+/-)-MDMA cue completely generalized to S-(+)-MDMA, S-(+)-amphetamine, (+/-)-MDA, S-(+)-MBDB, (+/-)-MBDB, R-(-)-MDMA, and R-(-)-MBDB, but not to LSD or DOM. The S-(+)-amphetamine cue generalized to (+/-)-methamphetamine, but not to racemic MDMA or MBDB, nor to their optical isomers. The S-(+)-isomers of both MDMA and MBDB were more potent than the R-(-)-isomers. The results indicate that MDMA and MBDB may share a component of their discriminative stimulus properties which is different from both stimulants and hallucinogens. Although MDA and MDMA have been shown to be amphetamine-like, the lack of stimulant effects for MBDB suggests that amphetamine-like stimulant activity is not necessary for a compound to share discriminative stimulus properties with MDMA.