Discrimination of serotonergic drugs is unaltered in rats prenatally exposed to ethanol

Pregnant rats were administered intragastrically 4.0 g/kg of ethanol (31.6% v/v) two times per diem on days 10-14 of gestation. A second group of pregnant rats were pair-fed to the ethanol treated group and placebo intubated, while a third group was not intubated. Prenatal ethanol exposure resulted in both reduced birth weight, weaning weight, and percent of pups surviving from birth to weaning. The treatment did not, however, affect the number of pups delivered. Two male pups approximately 60 days old were randomly selected from each litter for testing in a 2-lever drug discrimination task. One pup was trained to discriminate quipazine (3.0 mg/kg) from saline, while the second was trained to discriminate 5-HTP (30.0 mg/kg) + Ro4-4602, a peripheral decarboxylase inhibitor, from saline. Following acquisition, discrimination behavior was shown to be both dose and time dependent. None of these behavioral measures were altered by prenatal ethanol exposure.