[Effect of bromocriptine in experimental alcoholism in rats of both sexes]

It has been shown in experiments on intact rats that bromocriptin (1 mg/kg) produces opposite changes on the self-stimulation of the lateral hypothalamus: facilitates it in females and inhibits in males, whereas administered in a dose of 10 mg/kg inhibits it in animals of both sexes. It has been established in experiments on rats preferring ethanol to water that the drug in a dose of 1 mg/kg reduces the degree of ethanol preference only in females while the dose of ethanol consumption declines in animals of both sexes. Besides, bromocriptin decreases the rate of ethanol elimination from blood (3-fold in females, and 1.8-fold in males) and does not interfere with the reduction of ethanol concentration characteristic for the time of withdrawal.