Human sedative self-administration: effects of interingestion interval and dose

Area of Science:

• Pharmacology
• Behavioral Science

Background:

• Human self-administration research provides crucial data on drug abuse potential.
• Limited experimental data exists for sedative-hypnotic drugs like sodium pentobarbital and diazepam.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the feasibility of human self-administration research for sodium pentobarbital and diazepam.
• To examine the relationship between drug dose, inter-ingestion interval, and self-administration behavior.

Main Methods:

• Volunteer subjects with a history of drug abuse resided in a hospital ward.
• Tokens earned via exercise bike were exchanged for oral doses of sodium pentobarbital, diazepam, or ethanol.
• Manipulated variables included minimum inter-ingestion interval and dose per ingestion.

Main Results:

• Increasing the minimum inter-ingestion interval decreased drug intake for sodium pentobarbital and diazepam.
• Increasing the dose per ingestion increased drug intake for all studied drugs.
• The effects of manipulated variables were consistent across sodium pentobarbital, diazepam, and ethanol.

Conclusions:

• Human self-administration research is feasible for sodium pentobarbital and diazepam.
• Drug dose and inter-ingestion interval systematically control drug self-administration behavior.
• Findings contribute to understanding the behavioral pharmacology of sedative drugs.