Procedures That Produce Context-Specific Tolerance to Morphine in Rats Also Produce Context-Specific Withdrawal

• Published in: Behavioral neuroscience Vol. 103; no. 4; pp. 842 - 849
• Main Authors: Falls, William A, Kelsey, John E
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Psychological Association 01-08-1989
• Subjects: Analgesia; Analgesics; Animal; Animal behavior; Animal Environments; Animals; Biological and medical sciences; Brain - drug effects; Contextual Associations; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; Drug Tolerance; Drug Withdrawal; Drugs; Male; Medical sciences; Morphine; Morphine - pharmacology; Morphine Dependence - etiology; Naltrexone - pharmacology; Neuropharmacology; Nociceptors - drug effects; Pain; Pain Perception; Pharmacology. Drug treatments; Rats; Rats, Inbred Strains; Receptors, Opioid - drug effects; Rodents; Social Environment; Stimulus Novelty; Substance Withdrawal Syndrome - etiology; Thermosensing - drug effects; Context; Social environment; Rat; Withdrawal; Rodentia; Tolerance; Opiates; Narcotic analgesic; Analgesia; Vertebrata; Mammalia; Pain; Social interaction; Animal; Dyadic relation
• ISSN: 0735-7044; 1939-0084
• DOI: 10.1037/0735-7044.103.4.842

Rats previously injected with morphine in the presence of a distinct environment (paired animals) were more tolerant to the analgesic effects of morphine in that environment than were rats previously injected with morphine in another environment (unpaired animals). When injected with saline instead of morphine in the distinct environment, paired animals were more reactive to pain (hyperalgesic) than unpaired animals, but no more reactive to pain than animals never given morphine. More important, the paired animals also exhibited more withdrawal symptoms (wet dog shakes, genital licking, circling, rearing, and defecation) during abstinence and naltrexone-precipitated withdrawal in the distinct environment than did the unpaired and saline animals. Thus, procedures that are capable of producing context-specific opiate tolerance are also capable of producing context-specific opiate withdrawal.