Abstract
The simultaneous i.v. administration of heroin and cocaine, called “speedball,” is often reported clinically, and identification of effective pharmacotherapies for polydrug abuse is a continuing challenge. This study compared the effects of treatment using combinations of dopamine and opioid antagonists with each antagonist alone on speedball self-administration by rhesus monkeys. Speedballs (0.01 mg/kg/inj cocaine and 0.0032 mg/kg/inj heroin) and food (1 g banana pellets) were available in four daily sessions on a second-order schedule of reinforcement [FR4 (VR16:S)]. Monkeys were treated for 10 days with saline or ascending 1:10 dose combinations of the dopamine antagonist flupenthixol and the opioid antagonist quadazocine. The combination of flupenthixol (0.018 mg/kg/day) + quadazocine (0.18 mg/kg/day) significantly reduced speedball self-administration in comparison to the saline treatment baseline (p < .05), whereas, the same doses of each antagonist alone had no significant effect on speedball-maintained responding. Treatment with 0.018 mg/kg/day flupenthixol + 0.18 mg/kg/day quadazocine produced a 3-fold rightward shift in the speedball (3:1 cocaine-heroin combination) dose-effect curve. Food-maintained responding was similar during treatment with saline and with flupenthixol + quadazocine combinations. These findings suggest that medication mixtures designed to target both the stimulant and opioid component of the speedball combination, may be an effective approach to polydrug abuse treatment.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Nicolas Diaz-Migoyo and Amy Calvert for their technical assistance. We are grateful to Elizabeth Hall, D.V.M. for veterinary assistance and to Bruce Stephen for his contributions to the data analysis. Preliminary data were reported at the 1998 annual meeting of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence and the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. This research was supported in part by KO5 DA-00101, P50 DA-04059, and RO1 DA-02519 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, NIH.
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Mello, N., Negus, S. Effects of Flupenthixol and Quadazocine on Self-Administration of Speedball Combinations of Cocaine and Heroin by Rhesus Monkeys. Neuropsychopharmacol 21, 575–588 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1016/S0893-133X(99)00056-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0893-133X(99)00056-1
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