Jp. Zacny et al., Reinforcing, subjective, and psychomotor effects of sevoflurane and nitrous oxide in moderate-drinking healthy volunteers, ADDICTION, 94(12), 1999, pp. 1817-1828
Citations number
32
Categorie Soggetti
Public Health & Health Care Science","Clinical Psycology & Psychiatry
Aims. To characterize the reinforcing, subjective and psychomotor effects o
f sevoflurane, a volatile anesthetic, across a range of subanesthetic conce
ntrations in non-drug-abusing humans. In addition, a concentration of nitro
us oxide was included in the design in order to compare and contrast behavi
oral effects of a gaseous to a volatile anesthesic. Design. Repeated measur
es, double-blind, placebo control experiment. Setting. Human psychopharmaco
logy laboratory. Participants. Fourteen moderate-drinking healthy volunteer
s. Intervention. In each of four sessions, subjects first sampled placebo-o
xygen and an active drug (end-tidal concentrations of 0.2, 0.4, 0.6% sevofl
urane and 30% nitrous oxide in oxygen) and then chose between the two. Meas
urements. Mood and psychomotor performance during the sampling trials, and
choice of drug or placebo-oxygen during choice trial. Findings. Nitrous oxi
de was chosen by 71% of the subjects, and 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6% sevoflurane wer
e chosen by 50%, 57% and 50% of the subjects, respectively. Neither drug wa
s chosen at levels that exceeded that of chance. Sevoflurane and nitrous ox
ide both impaired psychomotor performance and produced changes in mood. The
re were several differences in subjective effects between sevoflurane and n
itrous oxide at concentrations which were considered to be equivalent in an
esthetic effect. Finally, although sevoflurane did not function as a reinfo
rcer in the majority of individuals tested, there was evidence that sevoflu
rane functioned as a reinforcer in some volunteers: subjects who chose to i
nhale sevoflurane over placebo-oxygen tended to report a positive spectrum
of subjective effects during the sevoflurane sampling trial, relative to th
ose subjects who chose placebo-oxygen over sevoflurane. Conclusions. Althou
gh sevoflurane did not function as a reinforcer in the majority of subjects
tested, the correspondence between positive subjective effects of sevoflur
ane and subsequent sevoflurane choice suggests that the volatile anesthetic
drug can function as a reinforcer in some moderate drinkers.