Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Psychology

Faculty/School

Faculty of Science

First Advisor

Linda Parker

Advisor Role

Thesis Supervisor

Abstract

Pentobarbital is self-administered by rats, but has also been reported to produce a conditioned place aversion. Since the self-administration and place preference paradigms both are considered to assess drug reward, we further examined the hedonic properties of pentobarbital using place conditioning. In Experiment 1, a dose of 15 mg/kg (ip) of pentobarbital produced a conditioned place aversion following 4 conditioning trials of various durations (5, 15, 30 or 60 min). Since rats are typically drug-experienced in the self-administration paradigm. Experiments 2 and 3 examined the effect of drug history on pentobarbital-induced place conditioning. Although preexposure to pentobarbital attenuated the place aversion, it never resulted in a place preference. These experiments suggest that pentobarbital is hedonically aversive when measured in the place conditioning paradigm.

Convocation Year

1997

Convocation Season

Spring

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