Chait L D, Zacny J P
Department of Psychiatry, Pritzker School of Medicine, University of Chicago, IL 60637.
Psychopharmacology (Berl). 1992;107(2-3):255-62. doi: 10.1007/BF02245145.
The reinforcing and subjective effects of oral delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and smoked marijuana were studied in two groups of regular marijuana users. One group (N = 10) was tested with smoked marijuana and the other (N = 11) with oral THC. Reinforcing effects were measured with a discrete-trial choice procedure which allowed subjects to choose between the self-administration of active drug or placebo on two independent occasions. Subjective effects and heart rate were measured before and after drug administration. Smoked active marijuana was chosen over placebo on both choice occasions by all subjects. Similarly, oral THC was chosen over placebo on both occasions by all but one subject. Both active drug treatments produced qualitatively and quantitatively similar subjective effects, and both significantly increased heart rate, although the time course of effects differed substantially between the two treatments. The results demonstrate that both smoked marijuana and oral THC can serve as positive reinforcers in human subjects under laboratory conditions. The experimental paradigm used here should prove useful for identifying factors that influence the self-administration of marijuana and other cannabinoids by humans.
在两组经常吸食大麻的人群中，研究了口服Δ-9-四氢大麻酚（THC）和吸食大麻的强化作用及主观效应。一组（N = 10）接受吸食大麻测试，另一组（N = 11）接受口服THC测试。通过离散试验选择程序测量强化作用，该程序允许受试者在两个独立场合中，在主动药物自我给药或安慰剂之间进行选择。在给药前后测量主观效应和心率。所有受试者在两个选择场合中均选择吸食活性大麻而非安慰剂。同样，除一名受试者外，所有受试者在两个场合中均选择口服THC而非安慰剂。两种活性药物治疗均产生了定性和定量上相似的主观效应，且均显著提高了心率，尽管两种治疗的效应时间进程有很大差异。结果表明，在实验室条件下，吸食大麻和口服THC均可作为人类受试者的阳性强化物。这里使用的实验范式应有助于识别影响人类自我给药大麻和其他大麻素的因素。
