Alcohol & Alcoholism Vol. 38, No. 6, pp. 543-549, 2003
© 2003 Medical Council on Alcohol
ETHANOL-REINFORCED BEHAVIOUR PREDICTS ACQUISITION BUT NOT EXTINCTION OF COCAINE SELF-ADMINISTRATION IN THE RAT
1 Department of Pharmacology, Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology, 2 Department of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology, Warsaw Medical Academy, Warsaw, Poland and 3 Preclinical Pharmacology Section, Behavioral Neuroscience Branch, Intramural Research Program, National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Baltimore, MD, USA
(Received 11 March 2003; first review notified 7 May 2003; in revised form 28 May 2003; accepted 10 June 2003)
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed at: Department of Pharmacology, Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology, 9 Sobieskiego St., PL-02957, Warsaw, Poland. Tel.: +48 22 321 33 76; Fax: +48 22 842 76 44; E-mail: pbienko{at}yahoo.com
Aims: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the relationship between operant oral ethanol self-administration and intravenous (i.v.) cocaine self-administration in male Wistar rats. Methods: Twenty-four rats were trained to lever press for 8% v/v ethanol in the sucrose-fading procedure. The subjects with the highest (high ethanol responders [HER], n = 7) and lowest (low ethanol responders [LER], n = 7) ethanol intakes were selected for further experiments. After a wash-out period, during which i.v. catheters were implanted, the HER and LER were trained to nose-poke for cocaine infusions (0.33 mg/kg/infusion, a FR1 schedule) for nine daily sessions. Results: The HER emitted more ‘active’ nose-pokes and obtained more cocaine infusions during sessions 2–4. Drug-seeking behaviour in the absence of cocaine reinforcement was then assessed for three consecutive extinction sessions. No between-group differences were found in terms of extinction of cocaine seeking. Locomotor responses to a novel environment were also similar in both groups. Conclusions: The present results suggest that a propensity to self-administer ethanol predicts more rapid acquisition of cocaine self-administration behaviour but does not influence subsequent behaviour during extinction.
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