Abstract
Repeated treatment of rats with ethanol (1 g/kg, once daily for 15 days) enhanced the locomotor effect of morphine, 3 weeks post-treatment. This ethanol-induced long-term behavioural sensitization to morphine was associated with an increase in the electrically evoked release of [3H]dopamine (DA) and [14C]acetylcholine (ACh) from nucleus accumbens slices. A similar enhanced responsiveness of accumbal dopaminergic and cholinergic neurons to depolarization was apparent 3 weeks after repeated morphine, amphetamine or cocaine administration. Prior ethanol exposure also caused a long-term enhancement of electrically evoked release of [3H]DA and [14C]ACh from slices of the caudate-putamen. Unlike the locomotor effect of morphine, that of amphetamine was not enhanced in ethanol-pretreated rats. These data indicate that ethanol administration may cause long-term behavioural sensitization associated with adaptive changes in dopaminergic and cholinergic neurons of rat nucleus accumbens and caudate-putamen. Furthermore, an enhanced reactivity of nucleus accumbens dopaminergic nerve terminals and dopamine-sensitive cholinergic neurons appears to be a common long-term neuroadaptive effect of distinct types of addictive drugs. However, since repeated ethanol exposure did not cause a long-term increase in the locomotor effect of amphetamine, these neuroadaptations may not always be sufficient to cause long-lasting behavioural (cross-)sensitization.
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Received: 15 January 1997 / Final version: 25 March 1997
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Nestby, P., Vanderschuren, L., De Vries, T. et al. Ethanol, like psychostimulants and morphine, causes long-lasting hyperreactivity of dopamine and acetylcholine neurons of rat nucleus accumbens: possible role in behavioural sensitization. Psychopharmacology 133, 69–76 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/s002130050373
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s002130050373