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Peri‐Response Pharmacokinetics of Remifentanil during a Self‐Administration Session Indicates That Neither Blood nor Brain Levels Are Titrated
Author(s) -
CRESPO JOSE A.,
PANLILIO LEIGH V.,
SCHINDLER CHARLES W.,
STURM KATJA,
SARIA ALOIS,
ZERNIG GERALD
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1196/annals.1369.050
Subject(s) - remifentanil , peri , pharmacokinetics , session (web analytics) , anesthesia , medicine , pharmacology , computer science , propofol , world wide web
Abstract: An individual's drug abuse pattern is determined by a multitude of factors. Among these, simple pharmacological determinants of within‐binge drug consumption are sorely underinvestigated. We therefore determined if within‐session operant responsing to the ultra‐short‐acting mu opioid agonist remifentanil (RMF) was determined by blood or brain RMF levels or changes thereof. Our peri‐response analysis did not detect any “threshold” RMF level, either in blood or in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) core as a deep brain region that might determine a rat's “decision” to re‐emit a response during a multiple‐injection drug self‐administration session. The peri‐response analysis also failed to find any peak RMF level, either in blood or in the NAc core, which could serve as a “ceiling” level. Thus, our findings strongly suggest that titration of blood or brain RMF levels does not determine a rat's intra‐session operant response.