EFFECTS OF REPEATED COCAINE ADMINISTRATION ON ALCOHOL-CONSUMPTION

Objective: Alcohol consumption (alcohol preference or alcohol intake) in animals is an index of human drinking behavior. Cocaine is the most frequently abused drug at present. Therefore, an increasing number of cases demonstrating concurrent use of alcohol and cocaine is being no ted. We examined whether cocaine affects alcohol consumption and studi ed the mechanism of change in alcohol consumption following cocaine ad ministration. Method: We measured alcohol consumption in inbred mice, C57BL/6J and C3H/HeJ, when 10 or 50 mg/kg cocaine was administered int raperitoneally once a day for 1 week. Then the rate of blood ethanol d isappearance from C57BL/6J mice in vivo was measured. Also, liver alco hol dehydrogenase(ADH) and aldehyde dehydrogenase(ALDH) activity in vi tro were measured in the C57BL/6J mice. Results: Following 50 mg/kg co caine administration, alcohol consumption was reduced in C57BL/6J mice , but there was no clear change in C3H/HeJ mice. The rate of blood eth anol disappearance was not changed by pretreatment with cocaine. Neith er liver ADH nor ALDH activity was changed by repeated cocaine adminis tration. Conclusions: The present study showed that repeated cocaine a dministration decreased alcohol consumption in C57BL/6J mice without a ltering the metabolism of ethanol.