Effectiveness of contingency management using transdermal alcohol monitoring to reduce heavy drinking among driving while intoxicated (DWI) arrestees: A randomized controlled trial.

Background: Driving while intoxicated (DWI) is a serious public health problem. However, treatment for DWI arrestees is not readily available. This study examines the effectiveness of a contingency management (CM) procedure using transdermal alcohol concentration (TAC) monitoring to reduce drinking among DWI arrestees.

Conditioned Stimulus Form Does Not Explain Failures to See Pavlovian-Instrumental-Transfer With Ethanol-Paired Conditioned Stimuli.

Background: Pavlovian-Instrumental-Transfer (PIT) examines the effects of associative learning upon instrumental responding. Previous studies examining PIT with ethanol (EtOH)-maintained responding showed increases in responding following presentation of an EtOH-paired conditioned stimulus (CS). Recently, we conducted 2 studies examining PIT with an EtOH-paired CS.

Behavioral Impulsivity Does Not Predict Naturalistic Alcohol Consumption or Treatment Outcomes.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine if behavioral impulsivity under multiple conditions (baseline, after alcohol consumption or after serotonin depletion) predicted naturalistic alcohol use or treatment outcomes from a moderation-based contingency management intervention.

Method: The current data analysis pulls information from three phases of a large study: 1) Phase 1 examined baseline and the effects of alcohol use and serotonin depletion on three types of behavioral impulsivity: response initiation (IMT task), response inhibition (GoStop task), and delay discounting (SKIP task); 2) Phase 2 involved 28 days of naturalistic drinking; and 3) Phase 3 involved 3 months of contingency management. During phases 2 and 3 alcohol use was measured objectively using transdermal alcohol monitors.

Ethanol self-administration in mice under a second-order schedule.

Long Fixed-Interval (FI) schedules, particularly second-order schedules, can engender substantial responding before drug or ethanol delivery that is uninfluenced by the direct effects of the drug or ethanol. Thus, these schedules can be used to study the effects of medications upon drug- or ethanol-seeking, uninfluenced by the direct effects of the self-administered drug or ethanol. Long FI second-order schedules are frequently used in primates and occasionally in rats.

Using Transdermal Alcohol Monitoring to Detect Low-Level Drinking.

Background: Several studies demonstrate the utility of Alcohol Monitoring Systems' (AMS) transdermal alcohol concentration (TAC) monitor to objectively quantify drinking. AMS standard criteria (i.e.

Relative potency of varenicline or fluvoxamine to reduce responding for ethanol versus food depends on the presence or absence of concurrently earned food.

Background: Varenicline, a nicotinic partial agonist, selectively reduces ethanol (EtOH)- versus sucrose-maintained behavior when tested in separate groups, yet like the indirect agonist fluvoxamine, this selectively inverts when EtOH and food are concurrently available.

Methods: Here, we extend these findings by examining varenicline and fluvoxamine effects under a multiple concurrent schedule where food and EtOH are concurrently available in different components: Component 1 where the food fixed-ratio was 25 and Component 2 where the food fixed-ratio was 75. The EtOH fixed-ratio was always 5.

Reinforcer magnitude and rate dependency: evaluation of resistance-to-change mechanisms.

Under many circumstances, reinforcer magnitude appears to modulate the rate-dependent effects of drugs such that when schedules arrange for relatively larger reinforcer magnitudes rate dependency is attenuated compared with behavior maintained by smaller magnitudes. The current literature on resistance to change suggests that increased reinforcer density strengthens operant behavior, and such strengthening effects appear to extend to the temporal control of behavior. As rate dependency may be understood as a loss of temporal control, the effects of reinforcer magnitude on rate dependency may be due to increased resistance to disruption of temporally controlled behavior.

Ethanol effects on multiple fixed-interval, fixed-ratio responding in mice with deletions of the serotonin transporter gene.

Serotonin transporter knockout (KO) mice self-administer less ethanol than either heterozygous or wild-type mice; however, the mechanistic basis for this difference remains unclear. Here we examine the possibility that ethanol more readily decreases responding in KO mice, thereby limiting ethanol self-administration. To examine whether KO mice were more sensitive to the response-decreasing effects of ethanol, we administered ethanol (0.

Effects of varenicline on ethanol- and food-maintained responding in a concurrent access procedure.

Background: Varenicline has been reported to reduce drinking in smokers and to selectively decrease responding for ethanol (EtOH) versus alternatives in preclinical studies. Such selectivity may reflect potential therapeutic effects and the involvement of nicotinic receptors in EtOH reinforcement. However, these studies have been conducted with EtOH and an alternative available in isolation or in separate groups, and selectivity can depend on the context in which reinforcement occurs.

Shifts in discriminative control with increasing periods of recovery in the rat.

Background: During recovery from alcoholism, other behavior likely increases. The development of alternative behavior may reduce attention to alcohol-associated stimuli. This could result in greater persistence of the alternative behavior when individuals again encounter alcohol-associated stimuli that might precipitate relapse.

The potency of fluvoxamine to reduce ethanol self-administration decreases with concurrent availability of food.

The selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor fluvoxamine reduces responding for ethanol at lower doses than responding for food when each is available in separate components or separate groups of rats. However, when both are available concurrently and deliveries earned per session are equal, this apparent selectivity inverts and food-maintained behavior is more sensitive than ethanol-maintained behavior to rate-decreasing effects of fluvoxamine. Here, we investigated further the impact that concurrent access to both food and ethanol has on the potency of fluvoxamine.

Reinforcement magnitude modulation of rate-dependent effects of fluvoxamine and desipramine in the rat.

Reinforcement magnitude modulates the effects of the antidepressants fluvoxamine and desipramine in the pigeon. Increasing reinforcement magnitude diminishes the rate-dependent effects of these drugs. Whether this is also the case in other species is unknown.

Mouse breathalyzer.

Background: The development of a relatively simple, noninvasive method for estimating blood ethanol concentrations in mice will be useful in behavioral studies related to alcoholism. This study validated such a method.

Methods: The apparatus consists of a body chamber fitted with a head stock through which the mouse head protrudes.

Reinforcement magnitude modulates the rate-dependent effects of fluvoxamine and desipramine on fixed-interval responding in the pigeon.

Some doses of fluvoxamine can decrease ethanol-maintained behavior more than food-maintained behavior. This might be explained by differences in reinforcement magnitude. In a previous study, the effects of fluvoxamine on fixed-ratio responding did not depend upon reinforcement magnitude.

Taurine and ethanol interactions: behavioral effects in mice.

Taurine is an abundant amino acid in the brain that shares pharmacological effects and similar potency with ethanol. Recently, taurine-containing beverages have been reported to enhance the euphoric effects of ethanol, though the extent of this effect and the role of taurine remain speculative. The present study was designed to explore interactions between taurine and ethanol on several behaviors including locomotion, ataxia, and loss of righting.

Discriminative stimulus functions of AM-1346, a CB1R selective anandamide analog in rats trained with Delta9-THC or (R)-methanandamide (AM-356).

Objective: To characterize in vivo the high-affinity cannabinoid CB1 receptor (CB1R) selective anandamide analog AM-1346 [alkoxyacid amide of N-eicosa-tetraenylamine] using drug discrimination procedures. D-amphetamine and also morphine in the (R)-methanandamide-trained group (see below) were examined to assess pharmacological specificity.

Methods: Three groups of rats were trained to discriminate between vehicle and (1) 1.

Cannabinoid effects on behaviors maintained by ethanol or food: a within-subjects comparison.

The cannabinoid CB1 antagonist rimonabant (SR141716A) has been proposed as a therapeutic agent for several addictive disorders, including alcoholism. Rimonabant may selectively reduce responding for an ethanol solution compared with an alternative. While this could represent a specific effect of CB1 inhibition on ethanol reinforcement, this could also result from differences in the baseline rates of behavior or experiences between comparison groups.

Rat breathalyzer.

Background: The purpose of this study was to characterize the estimation of blood alcohol (ethanol) concentration (BAC) in laboratory rats by measuring ethanol concentration in breath (BrAC) using a specialized apparatus in combination with a gas chromatography system.

Methods: The apparatus consisted of a body chamber, a plastic cylinder, from which the head of the rat protruded, a head chamber, and a water-jacketed cylinder, in which the rat's head was placed while the breath sample was collected. The breath sample was withdrawn from the head chamber through a sample loop by a Minipuls pump and then injected directly into the gas chromatography system that was equipped with a flame ionization detector for the quantification of ethanol.

Adamantyl cannabinoids: a novel class of cannabinergic ligands.

Structure-activity relationship studies have established that the aliphatic side chain plays a pivotal role in determining the cannabinergic potency of tricyclic classical cannabinoids. We have now synthesized a series of analogues in which a variety of adamantyl substituents were introduced at the C3 position of Delta(8)-THC. Our lead compound, (-)-3-(1-adamantyl)-Delta(8)-tetrahydrocannabinol (1a, AM411), was found to have robust affinity and selectivity for the CB1 receptor as well as high in vivo potency.

Cut-off levels for breath carbon monoxide as a marker for cigarette smoking.

Aims: Current clinical studies often use a breath carbon monoxide (BCO) cut-off level of 8 parts per million (p.p.m.

Interactions of gamma-hydroxy butyrate with ethanol and NCS 382.

We examined the effects of gamma-hydroxy butyrate (GHB) alone and in combination with either ethanol or NCS 382 [(2E)-(5-hydroxy-5,7,8,9-tetrahydro-6H-benzo[a][7]annulen-6-ylidene], a purported antagonist at the GHB receptor. These effects were examined on the responding of rats under a fixed-ratio (FR) 10 schedule of sugar solution (14%, w/v; 0.1 ml) presentation.

(R)-Methanandamide and delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol-induced operant rate decreases in rats are not readily antagonized by SR-141716A.

The current study examined the interaction between the cannabinoid CB(1) receptor agonists Delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol and (R)-methanandamide in combination with the cannabinoid CB(1) receptor antagonist SR-141716A (N-(piperidin-1-yl)-5-(4-chloro-phenyl)-1-(2,4-dichlorophenyl)-4-methyl-1H-pyrazole-3-carboxamide HCl) in rats responding for food on a fixed ratio (FR-10) schedule of food reinforcement. The study provided only limited evidence for antagonism by SR-141716A (at 1 mg/kg but not with 0.3, 3 and 10 mg/kg) of the rate suppressant effects induced by the cannabinoid CB(1) receptor agonist Delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (and only at the single dose of 5.