© 1987 Medical Council on Alcohol
research-article
DOES THE BLOCKADE OF OPIOID RECEPTORS INFLUENCE THE DEVELOPMENT OF ETHANOL DEPENDENCE?
SKA
SKI*Department of Pharmacodynamics Medical Academy, Staszica 4, 20081 Lublin, Poland
* To whom correspondence and reprint requests should be sent
Received 9 July 1986; accepted 2 November 1986
We have tested whether the opioid antagonists naloxone (2 mg/kg), naltrexone (2 mg/kg) and diprenorphine (0.2 mg/kg), and the agonist morphine (48 mg/kg) given subcutaneously (10 min before ethanol for 7 days) modify the ethanol withdrawal syndrome (audiogenic seizures) following chronic ethanol intoxication in rats. We found that naloxone, naltrexone and diprenorphine modified the ethanol withdrawal syndrome. These findings do not rule out the possibility of a biochemical link between the action of ethanol and opiates at the level of opioid receptors.