Tolerance to the behavioral effects of phencyclidine: the importance of behavioral and pharmacological variables

The effects of phencyclidine (PCP) on the behavior of rats responding to a fixed-interval 1 min schedule of water delivery were determined before, during, and after a period of daily PCP injections. The effects of acute PCP on overall response rate were biphasic: low doses increased and high doses decreased rates. In addition, PCP produced a dose-related decrease in quarter-life and high doses of PCP decreased the number of reinforcers delivered. During the daily injection regimen roughly a two-fold tolerance developed to the effects of 8.0 mg/kg PCP on response rate in animals receiving either presession or post-session injections of this dose, emphasizing the predominance of pharmacological variables in PCP tolerance. However, slight differences between these groups in tolerance development and in the rate of tolerance loss demonstrate that behavioral variables can influence tolerance to the behavioral effects of PCP.