Nicotine and methamphetamine share discriminative stimulus effects.

Background: Nicotine and methamphetamine are both abused in similar settings, sometimes together. Because there are known interactions between central nicotinic acetylcholine receptors and dopamine receptors, it is of interest to characterize the nature of the interaction of these two compounds in vivo.

Methods: The purpose of this study was to characterize the extent to which these two compounds produce similar discriminative stimulus effects and to identify pharmacological mechanisms for their interaction.

Effects of monoamine oxidase inhibitors on cocaine discrimination in rats.

This study tested the time course of the discriminative stimulus effects of inhibitors of monoamine oxidase alone or in combination with cocaine. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were trained to discriminate cocaine (10 mg/kg, intraperitoneal) from saline using a two-lever choice methodology. The nonselective monoamine oxidase inhibitors tranylcypromine (0.