Discriminating and reinforcing properties of amphetamin

Abstract

Behavioral pharmacology includes a variety of procedures to study the effect that drugs have on behavior. Two of those procedures are drug discrimination and conditioned place preference. They have been widely used to study the subjective and reinforcing properties of drugs; in this paper we summarize some studies of the reinforcing and stimulus properties of amphetamine. In the drug discrimination procedure It has been found that amphetamine Is discriminated from saline; in combination tests the stimulus function of amphetamine is inhibited by TFMPP and mCPP but facilitated by mchlorophenylbiguanide (mCPBG). Amphetamine produced conditioned place preference, but the 5-HTx agonist mCPP did not, and it may be able to modulate the reinforcing properties of amphetamine. The modulation of the subjective and reinforcing effects of amphetamine by serotonin drugs may open a new way to treat addiction.