Perkins K A, Fonte C, Blakesley-Ball R, Stolinski A, Wilson A S
Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, USA.
Behav Pharmacol. 2005 Nov;16(7):521-9. doi: 10.1097/01.fbp.0000175255.55774.19.
Alcohol intake may acutely alter the discriminative stimulus and subjective effects of nicotine, perhaps explaining why alcohol increases tobacco smoking. In this study, cigarette smokers were initially trained to discriminate 20 microg/kg nicotine by nasal spray from placebo. Three sessions then followed, in which the generalization of nicotine discrimination was tested across a range of doses (0--20 microg/kg) following pre-treatment with 0, 0.4, and 0.8 g/kg alcohol p.o. Intermittent 'topping' doses of alcohol maintained a steady breath alcohol level (BAL) throughout testing. Generalization testing involved both two- and three-choice ('novel' option) procedures. A visual discrimination task was also conducted to determine the specificity of effects of alcohol. Subjective and cardiovascular measures were obtained concurrent with discrimination responding. The relative reinforcing effects of nicotine were assessed after the end of generalization testing using a choice procedure. Alcohol pre-treatment had no significant effects on nicotine discrimination or self-administration behavior. Alcohol and nicotine each influenced selected subjective responses and heart rate, but virtually no interactions between the drugs were observed. Within the limitations of this study, these results do not support the notion that alcohol acutely alters nicotine's discriminative stimulus, subjective, or relative reinforcing effects at these low nicotine doses. Acute effects of alcohol on smoking behavior may be due to alterations in other effects of nicotine intake or in non-nicotine effects of tobacco smoking.
酒精摄入可能会急性改变尼古丁的辨别刺激和主观效应，这或许可以解释为什么酒精会增加吸烟行为。在本研究中，吸烟者最初接受训练，通过鼻腔喷雾辨别20微克/千克尼古丁与安慰剂。随后进行了三个实验环节，在口服0、0.4和0.8克/千克酒精预处理后，测试尼古丁辨别在一系列剂量（0 - 20微克/千克）范围内的泛化情况。在整个测试过程中，间歇性的酒精“补充”剂量维持了稳定的呼气酒精浓度（BAL）。泛化测试涉及二选一和三选一（“新选项”）程序。还进行了视觉辨别任务以确定酒精效应的特异性。在进行辨别反应的同时获取主观和心血管指标。在泛化测试结束后，使用选择程序评估尼古丁的相对强化效应。酒精预处理对尼古丁辨别或自我给药行为没有显著影响。酒精和尼古丁各自影响了选定的主观反应和心率，但几乎未观察到药物之间的相互作用。在本研究的局限性范围内，这些结果不支持酒精在这些低尼古丁剂量下会急性改变尼古丁的辨别刺激、主观或相对强化效应这一观点。酒精对吸烟行为的急性影响可能是由于尼古丁摄入的其他效应或吸烟的非尼古丁效应发生了改变。
