The present study was designed to test the hypothesis that atypical, but not typical, antipsychotics produce a functional in vivo blockade of 5-HT2A receptors. The magnitude of functional in vivo 5-HT2A receptor blockade elicited by representative compounds from each of the six major structural classes of typical antipsychotics, and the representative atypical antipsychotics clozapine and...
Abstract The subacute and long‐term biochemical effects of methylenedioxymeth‐amphetamine (MDMA) were assessed in homozygous and heterozygous transgenic (Tg) mice that carry the complete sequence of the human copper‐zinc (CuZn) superoxide dismutase (SOD) gene. Non‐transgenic (Non‐Tg) mice showed significant decreased in striatal dopamine (DA) and dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC) levels both...
Effects of chronic treatment with the putative serotonergic neurotoxicant MDMA were assessed in rhesus macaques using behavior in an operant test battery (OTB) designed to model aspects of time estimation, short-term memory, motivation, learning, and color and position discrimination. After an initial acute dose-response assessment, escalating doses of MDMA (0.10-20.0 mg/kg, im, twice daily,...
Abstract The aim of this study was to examine the effect of acute administration of (±)3,4‐methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) (20 mg/kg, i.p.) on colonic temperature, serum corticosterone and brain biogenic amine concentrations in group‐housed male and female rats and to determine if there are any gender differences in susceptibility to MDMA‐induced changes. Prior to treatment, basal colonic...
The potency of hallucinogenic amphetamine derivatives of the 1-(2,5-dimethoxy-4-alkylphenyl)-2-aminopropane type drops dramatically when the length of the 4-alkyl substituent exceeds propyl or when the substituent is branched. This investigation was directed toward evaluating changes in behavioral and biochemical pharmacology resulting from introducing chirality into the 4-alkyl group of such...
Bufotenine (N, N-dimethyl-5-hydroxytryptamine) is a serotonin analog reported to be hallucinogenic. Bufotenine concentrations were measured by liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection after the s.c. injection of bufotenine (1, 30 or 100 mg/kg) into rats. At 1 hr, bufotenine was high in lung, heart and blood and lower in brain and liver. No N-monomethyl-5-hydroxytryptamine was...
Our objective was to identify endocrine-related mechanisms capable of mediating preventive effects of stress reduction in hypertensive heart disease. Since beneficial effects of stress reduction accrue over time, this cross-sectional, descriptive study sought differences between healthy students not practicing a systematic technique for reducing stress (the average stress, or AS, group, n = 33)...
3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA or "Ecstasy") was first synthesised 80 years ago, but has recently received prominence as an illegally synthesised recreational drug of abuse. There is a widely held belief among misusers that it is safe. In the last 2-3 years there have been a number of reports of the drug producing severe acute toxicity and death and there are concerns that it may cause...
Rats were allowed to self-administer cocaine during a 3-h session for 15 days. One to 11 days after the last cocaine exposure, rats were anesthetized with urethane and effects of microiontophoretically-applied dopamine on glutamate-evoked firing of neurons in the nucleus accumbens and in the caudate/putamen were tested. Dopamine produced a dose-dependent inhibition of glutamate-evoked firing in...
The amphetamine derivatives p-chloroamphetamine (pCA), 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, 'Ecstasy') and D-fenfluramine can, if given repeatedly in high doses to rats, produce a degeneration of serotonergic nerve terminals which we have previously shown to result in a reduction in D-fenfluramine-evoked release of 5-HT in vivo. It is therefore possible that fenfluramine-evoked responses...