Buspirone attenuates volitional alcohol intake in the chronically drinking monkey.

Four macaque monkeys which showed excessive preference for ethyl alcohol solutions in a self-selection paradigm were used as subjects. Earlier these animals had been given intracerebroventricular (ICV) injections of human cerebrospinal fluid, which produced pharmacologically significant effects on the animals' alcohol consumption. The purpose of the present investigation was to determine whether the parenteral administration of a new anxiolytic compound, buspirone, would alter the pattern of alcohol drinking already established in the monkey. Initially the maximally selected concentration of alcohol of 12% was determined on the basis of a standard ad lib alcohol-water preference screen. Each monkey was offered 12% alcohol and water for a basal pre-injection period of 4 days. Then, on each of the next three days, either the saline control vehicle or buspirone, 1.25, 5.0 or 20.0 mg/kg, was injected intramuscularly at 930 and 1630 hours. On these days, behavioral observations were recorded before and after buspirone's administration in order to evaluate the latency as well as recovery from the drug's effect. Subsequently, a four-day post-injection, 12% alcohol-water test was conducted. Although the saline control and 1.25 mg/kg dose of buspirone were without effect on alcohol intake, both the 5.0 and 20.0 mg/kg doses of buspirone attenuated significantly the consumption of alcohol by the monkeys. This reduction in terms of absolute g/kg as well as the proportion of alcohol to water ingested was approximately 30-60% of baseline intakes. Following buspirone treatment, the amount of alcohol consumed returned essentially to previously high levels.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)