Following several days of continuous administration d-amphetamine acquires hallucinogenlike properties

Rats injected with LSD or mescaline show the behavioral syndrome which has been previously reported following injections of hallucinogens in higher mammals: limb flicks and whole body shakes. Although these behaviors are not elicited by acute injections of amphetamine, they are present in rats which have been pretreated for 108 h with a slow-release amphetamine pellet, given a 12 h rest period, and then injected with d-amphetamine. Such pellet-pretreated animals also groom their body surface excessively. We propose that this novel syndrome which follows continuous amphetamine administration can serve as an animal model of the type of amphetamine psychosis that is produced by a similar drug regimen in humans.