Opioid-enhancing antinociceptive effects of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol and amitriptyline in rhesus macaques.

Cannabinoids can enhance the antinociceptive effects of opioids in a synergistic manner, potentially reducing the analgesic dosage of opioids and improving pain therapy. This strategy has also been used as a rationale to combine certain antidepressants and opioids. In this experiment, opioid-induced thermal antinociception was assessed in rhesus macaques using a warm-water tail-withdrawal procedure with 3 water temperatures (40, 50, and 55 °C).

Effects of cocaine on the discriminative stimulus and reinforcing effects of mephedrone in male rats.

Rationale: Abuse of cathinones has been a worldwide health concern for some time. Their chemical structures and wide variation in pharmacodynamic effects have led to clinical and preclinical effects that can be both similar to and different from other psychoactive substances such as methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), methamphetamine, and cocaine.

Objective: The present study examined the discriminative stimulus and reinforcing effects of mephedrone to further characterize the behavioral and pharmacological profile of this first-generation substituted methcathinone.