Pretreatment with the putative anti-addictive drug, ibogaine, increases the potency of cocaine to elicit locomotor responding: a study with acute and chronic cocaine-treated rats.
Psychopharmacology – July 01, 1999
Source: PubMed
Summary
A compound often considered for addiction treatment, ibogaine, surprisingly makes rats more sensitive to cocaine's stimulating effects. Researchers investigated how ibogaine pretreatment influences movement responses to cocaine in rats with either acute or chronic drug exposure. Clear findings emerged: ibogaine amplified cocaine's stimulating effects in both groups. Notably, for chronically exposed rats, ibogaine increased movement at lower cocaine doses but reduced it at higher doses, revealing a complex interplay shaped by prior drug history.
Abstract
Results of single-dose studies suggest that the effects of pretreatment with the putative anti-addictive compound, ibogaine, on drug-induced locomotor behavior depends on the previous drug history of the animal. To compare the effects of ibogaine pretreatment on the dose-locomotor response function for cocaine in rats treated chronically with either saline or cocaine. Rats were chronically treated with either cocaine (15 mg/kg, IP, once daily for 5 days, followed by 2 week withdrawal) or saline. Ibogaine (40 mg/kg, IP) or vehicle was administered and 19 h later, a cocaine dose-locomotor response test was conducted (0, 5, 10, 20 and 40 mg/kg, IP). Chronic cocaine administration augmented the locomotor response to cocaine in chronic cocaine-treated rats, compared to acutely treated controls. Ibogaine pretreatment enhanced the locomotor effects of cocaine in both chronic and acute cocaine groups. Furthermore, due to the shape of the dose-response curve, in chronic cocaine but not in acute cocaine rats, ibogaine pretreatment enhanced the locomotor response to 5 and 10 mg/kg cocaine while decreasing the locomotor response to 40 mg/kg cocaine. These data demonstrate definitively that ibogaine can enhance sensitivity to the locomotor stimulant effects of cocaine, an effect which depends, in part, on the previous cocaine history of the animal.