EVALUATION OF THE ABUSE LIABILITY OF AMINOREX

Aminorex is a cyclic phenylisopropylamine that has been marketed as an anorectic. Despite obvious pharmacological similarities to the amphet amines, little is known about its liability for abuse. In the present study, one group of rhesus monkeys (n = 3) was prepared with intraveno us catheters and allowed to self-administer either methohexital or sal ine in daily experimental sessions. When methohexital and saline self- administration were stable and clearly different, various doses of ami norex (0.001-0.1 mg/kg/injection) were made available for self-adminis tration. Aminorex maintained self-administration above that maintained by saline and slightly lower than that maintained by methohexital in all monkeys. The discriminative stimulus effects of aminorex were eval uated in rhesus monkeys trained to discriminate d-amphetamine (n = 3) or pentobarbital (n = 4) from saline. Aminorex substituted completely for d-amphetamine as a discriminative stimulus but engendered little o r no pentobarbital-appropriate responding. Aminorex stimulated locomot or activity in mice and exacerbated the withdrawal syndrome in rats th at were dependent upon pentobarbital. These findings indicate that ami norex is a psychomotor stimulant that would be predicted to have signi ficant d-amphetamine-like abuse liability in humans.