Dopamine partial agonist reverses amphetamine withdrawal in rats

Decreased motivation to work for a natural reward is a sign of amphetamine withdrawal and is thought to be associated with hypofunction of the mesolim bic dopamine system. During withdrawal from repeated amphetamine administra tion, rats showed reduced responding for a sweet solution in a progressive ratio schedule. Repeated systemic treatment with terguride (0.2 and 0.4 mg/ kg, i.p.) twice daily during the first four days of amphetamine withdrawal reversed the decrease in responding for the sweet solution. These results s uggest that dopamine partial agonists, possibly due to their agonistic-like actions under these conditions, are a potential therapeutic approach for t he acute withdrawal stage of the amphetamine addition cycle. (C) 2001 Ameri can College of Neuropsychopharmacology. Published by Elsevier Science Inc.