Effects of amphetamine on food intake and weight: timing of injections and food access.

Although the effects of amphetamine on food consumption and body weight in nondeprived animals are of interest for theoretical and clinical reasons, there are only a few studies on this topic in the literature. In Experiment 1, independent groups of nondeprived rats were given daily injections of 0, 1, 2, 5, or 10 mg/kg d-amphetamine sulfate shortly after light onset for 30 days. While drug treatment did not affect food consumption, all amphetamine-treated groups lost weight over the initial 12 days and then, over the final 18 days of treatment, gained weight at the same rate as controls. Experiment 2 assessed whether the effects of amphetamine on these measures are influenced by the timing of the daily injections relative to the light-dark cycle. As in Experiment 1, injections of amphetamine at light onset again produced weight loss while not affecting food consumption, whereas injections of the drug at light offset did not reliably affect either measure. Experiment 3 showed that the relationships among variables observed in nondeprived animals remain the same in animals restricted to 12 h of access to food each day and replicated the amphetamine-induced hyperphasia observed earlier by Jones and Caul (9).