Hallucinogenic agents as discriminative stimuli: a correlation with serotonin receptor affinities.
R A Glennon, R Young, J A Rosecrans, M J Kallman
Psychopharmacology January 1, 1980 DOI: 10.1007/BF00432133 via PubMed
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractRats can be trained to distinguish the hallucinogenic drug 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine (5-OMe DMT) from a saline placebo using a lever-choice task. Once trained, the rats responded to 14 chemically similar tryptamine compounds as if they were 5-OMe DMT, with the strength of this response depending on the dose. For all but one compound, the dose needed to produce the drug-like response was strongly correlated (r = -0.86) with how tightly the compound binds to serotonin (5-HT) receptors, suggesting that these drugs' hallucinogenic effects are mediated through the serotonin system.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Experimental study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 24 |
| Population | Rats |
| Interventions | 5-methoxy-N N-dimethyltryptamine (5-OMe DMT) saline |
| Citations | 46 |
| Key finding | The hallucinogenic drug 5-OMe DMT's effects generalize to related tryptamine compounds in a dose-dependent manner, and the potency of these compounds correlates strongly with their affinity for serotonin receptors. |
Abstract
A choice between two levers in an operant chamber was used to train 24 rats, under a variable-interval 15 s schedule of sweetened milk reinforcement, to discriminate a hallucinogenic (psychotomimetic) agent, 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine (5-OMe DMT), from saline administration. The 5-OMe DMT stimulus generalized in a dose-related manner to each of 14 tryptamine related analogs. With the exception of one compound, the effective dose for the 5-OMe DMT response correlated highly (r = -0.86) with 5-HT receptor affinity (as determined using an isolated rat fundus preparation).