Intra-Administration Associations and Ethanol Tolerance

Abstract

Several studies examining the role of environmental cues have demonstrated that Pavlovian conditioning contributes to drug tolerance and withdrawal. More recently, there is subsequent evidence suggesting that internal drug cues also play a role in eliciting conditional compensatory responses. These findings have demonstrated, in intra-drug and intra-administration paradigms, drug-opposite effects in morphine-tolerant subjects when given a very small dose ofmorphine. This phenomenon has thus far only been demonstrated with morphine. The current experiments seek to examine the role of interoceptive cues in ethanol administration. In an intra-administration design, subjects are trained on intra-gastric ethanol until tolerance develops to alcohol's hypothermic or ataxic effects. It is predicted that alcohol-tolerant subjects will display hyperthermia, or marked increases in temperature, in response to alcohol-onset cues. Similarly, subjects who become tolerant to the motor coordination impairment or ataxic ethanol effects should later display increased coordination and balance during ataxia tilting plane assessments. Although reports in morphine intra-administration designs have demonstrated that early drug-onset cues elicit conditional compensatory responses, such findings were not confirmed with alcohol administration.