EFFECTS OF BUPRENORPHINE AND AN ALTERNATIVE NONDRUG REINFORCER, ALONEAND IN COMBINATION ON SMOKED COCAINE SELF-ADMINISTRATION IN MONKEYS

The abuse of smoked cocaine base, also known as 'crack', continues to be a major public health problem and to date the success of pharmacolo gical or behavioral interventions has been limited. The purpose of thi s study was to evaluate the efficacy of a behavioral (alternative rein forcer-saccharin) and pharmacological (0.01 mg/kg buprenorphine) treat ment alone and in combination. Five adult male rhesus monkeys self-adm inistered cocaine base (1.0 m/kg/delivery) via the smoking/inhalation route. Each day ten smoke deliveries were available contingent upon co mpletion of a chained FR (lever press), FR (inhalation response) respo nse schedule during 4 hr sessions. The data were analyzed using a beha vioral economic framework in which the lever press response requiremen ts were varied from 64 to 1024 to generate a demand function (consumpt ion x FR) for cocaine under the following conditions: (1) buprenorphin e pretreatment alone (0.01 mg/kg: i.m., 30 min presession); (2) concur rent access to saccharin alone (0.03% wt/vol); and (3) buprenorphine p retreatment in the presence of concurrent access to saccharin. Under a ll conditions, increases in the lever FR resulted in significant decre ases in smoked cocaine base deliveries. Neither buprenorphine pretreat ment alone nor concurrent saccharin alone produced significant decreas es in smoked cocaine deliveries; however, the combination of buprenorp hine pretreatment and concurrent saccharin significantly decreased the mean number of smoked cocaine deliveries from the no treatment baseli ne and from the buprenorphine alone condition. These data suggest that the combination of pharmacotherapy and alternative reinforcers may be an effective treatment strategy to alter smoked cocaine self-administ ration. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.