Atypical dopamine-uptake inhibitors have low abuse potential and may serve as leads for development of cocaine-abuse treatments. Among them, the benztropine (BZT) derivatives, N-butyl (JHW007), N-allyl (AHN2-005), and N-methyl (AHN1-055) analogs of 3α-[bis(4'-fluorophenyl)methoxy]-tropane dose-dependently decreased cocaine self-administration without effects on food-maintained responding. Our s...

We evaluated a new EMIT#{174} II monoclonal amphetamine! methamphetamine assay for screening human urine by comparing itwith the EMIT#{174} d.a.u. monoclonal amphetamine/methamphetamine assay and a fluorescence polarization assay. The EMIT II assay has a cutoff of 1 mg!L d-methamphetamine. The EMIT II and EMIT d.a.u. assays were run on a BM/Hitachi 704 analyzer; for the fluorescence polarizatio...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Dopamine released from the endings of descending dopaminergic nerve fibres in the spinal cord may be involved in modulating functions such as locomotion and nociception. Here, we examined the effects of dopamine on spinal synaptic transmissions in rats. EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH Spinal reflex potentials, monosynaptic reflex potential (MSR) and slow ventral root potential (s...

PURPOSE Rates of depression among street youth are poorly characterized, particularly as they pertain to concurrent drug use. We sought to assess associations between drug type and degree of depression in this population. METHODS Between October 2005 and November 2007, data were collected from a cohort of street-recruited youth aged 14-26 residing in Vancouver, Canada, for the At-Risk Youth S...

Behavioral sensitization of psychostimulant-induced locomotor activity in rats has been proposed as a model of addiction and is accompanied by neuroadaptations in the nucleus accumbens and related circuits. Here, we used in vivo intracellular recordings to examine electrophysiological properties of accumbens neurons from animals that did or did not exhibit behavioral sensitization after repeate...

BACKGROUND Our pilot study suggested that the angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor perindopril might reduce some subjective effects produced by i.v. methamphetamine. We characterized the impact of a wider range of perindopril doses on methamphetamine-induced effects in a larger group of non-treatment-seeking, methamphetamine-using volunteers. METHODS Before treatment, participants received...

Previous studies demonstrated that tolerance to the long-term neurotoxic effects of methamphetamine on dopamine neurons could be induced by pretreating with multiple injections of escalating doses of methamphetamine. The mechanism(s) underlying this tolerance phenomenon is unknown. Some recent studies suggested that aberrant vesicular monoamine transporter-2 (VMAT-2) and dopamine transporter fu...