Murphy M R
Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 1981 Apr;14(4):561-7. doi: 10.1016/0091-3057(81)90317-8.
The debilitating effect of opiate drugs on sexual function has been known clinically for hundreds of years but has become a topic of experimental investigation only recently. The purpose of the current study was to examine the effects of the opiate drugs methadone and the opiate blocking drug naltrexone on the sexual behavior of male hamsters. Methadone, administered at dosages of 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16 mg/kg, was found to cause a dose related decline in measures of both sexual performance and sexual motivation, with measures of sexual performance being the more sensitive to the drug. The debilitating effect of methadone was judged to be highly selective for sexual behavior since, for example, at 16 mg/kg of methadone, sexual behavior was eliminated but ambulatory activity was unaffected. Pretreatment with naltrexone blocked the effects of methadone and posttreatment reversed the effects, thereby indicating that the methadone was inhibiting sexual behavior by acting on specific opiate receptors. The results demonstrate that the male hamster is an excellent small animal model for use in studying the mechanisms of opiate induced sexual dysfunction and further support the hypothesis that the endogenous opiates may be involved in the regulation of sexual behavior.
鸦片类药物对性功能的削弱作用在临床上已为人所知数百年，但直到最近才成为实验研究的课题。本研究的目的是检验鸦片类药物美沙酮和鸦片类阻断药物纳曲酮对雄性仓鼠性行为的影响。发现以1、2、4、8和16毫克/千克的剂量给予美沙酮会导致性行为表现和性动机指标出现剂量相关的下降，其中性行为表现指标对该药物更为敏感。美沙酮的削弱作用被认为对性行为具有高度选择性，例如，在16毫克/千克的美沙酮剂量下，性行为被消除，但自主活动未受影响。用纳曲酮进行预处理可阻断美沙酮的作用，而进行后处理则可逆转这些作用，从而表明美沙酮是通过作用于特定的鸦片受体来抑制性行为的。结果表明，雄性仓鼠是用于研究鸦片诱导性功能障碍机制的优良小动物模型，并进一步支持内源性鸦片可能参与性行为调节的假说。
