ASSESSING THE BEHAVIORAL-EFFECTS AND ABUSE POTENTIAL OF PROPOFOL BOLUS INJECTIONS IN HEALTHY-VOLUNTEERS

Propofol is a recently introduced intravenous anesthetic agent, common ly administered to surgical patients because it induces anesthesia smo othly (i.e., provides loss of consciousness rapidly and usually with n o complications) and is associated with rapid recovery. Propofol has p sychoactive effects that could be construed as pleasant, although litt le abuse liability testing has been done on this agent in humans. Acco rdingly, we examined various effects of this agent at different subane sthetic doses (0.2 - 0.6 mg/kg) in order to characterize this drug's a buse potential (for recreational use or potential for diversion). Usin g a double-blind, randomized, crossover design, healthy normal volunte ers (N = 10) were injected intravenously with the drug or with placebo . Before the injection and for up to 1 h afterwards, mood (including d rug liking), memory and psychomotor performance were assessed. Propofo l impaired memory and psychomotor performance and produced changes in 10 of 20 VAS mood ratings. Although there was variability in self-repo rted drug liking, some subjects clearly liked the effects of propofol, especially at the two higher doses. At the debriefing interview held after completion of the study, five subjects said if they had to parti cipate in one more session in which they were given a choice between b eing injected with the highest dose (0.6 mg/kg) or a placebo, they wou ld choose propofol. These preliminary results suggest that this agent may have some potential for abuse/diversion and perhaps stricter accou ntability procedures should be established for this drug in settings w here general anesthesia or conscious sedation procedures are done.