Enhancement of the ambulation-increasing effect of opioid analgesics by ethanol in mice.

The interaction between opioid analgesics (morphine and buprenorphine) and central depressants (ethanol, pentobarbital and diazepam) was investigated by means of ambulatory activity in mice. The ambulation-increasing effect of both morphine (10 mg/kg, s.c.) and buprenorphine (1 mg/kg, s.c.) was enhanced by the combined administration of ethanol (0.8-3.2 g/kg, p.o.) in a dose-dependent manner. Naloxone (0.1 mg/kg, s.c.) was effective for reducing the enhanced ambulatory activity. The pretreatment with Ca-cyanamide (5 mg/kg, p.o., 30 min before) reduced the enhancement of the ambulation-increasing effect induced by the combined administration of opioid analgesics with ethanol, although it scarcely modified that of morphine and buprenorphine alone. On the other hand, neither pentobarbital (1-30 mg/kg, s.c.) nor diazepam (0.25-2 mg/kg, s.c.) modified markedly the ambulation-increasing effect of morphine and buprenorphine. The present results suggest that ethanol specifically interacted with opioid analgesics when the mouse's ambulatory activity was used as the indicator.