Analgesic and aversive effects of naloxone in BALB/c mice

Opioid antagonists have been shown to produce dose-dependent analgesia in the formalin test in BALB/c mice. In light of this paradoxical finding, the motivational-affective property of naloxone was examined in BALB/c mice. Naloxone produced a conditioned place aversion at doses which were also found to produce analgesia in the formalin test (1 and 10 mg/kg). In addition, the analgesia produced by 1 mg/kg naloxone was completely abolished in mice pretreated with nor-binaltorphimine, a highly selective kappa-opioid antagonist. Norbinaltorphimine on its own, however, had no effect. These results suggest that the analgesic actions of naloxone may be due to an interaction with kappa receptors.