Failure of ibogaine to produce phencyclidine-like discriminative stimulus effects in rats and monkeys

Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 1998 Feb;59(2):413-8. doi: 10.1016/s0091-3057(97)00452-8.

Abstract

The discriminative stimulus properties of ibogaine were investigated in rats trained to discriminate phencyclidine (PCP; 2.0 mg/kg, I.P.) from saline under a two-lever fixed-ratio (FR) 32 schedule of food reinforcement. Ibogaine (5.6-17.6 mg/kg, I.P.) showed a complete lack of substitution. Ibogaine (0.5-4.0 mg/kg, I.M.) also failed to generalize in rhesus monkeys trained to discriminate PCP (0.1 mg/kg, I.M.) from sham injection. Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), tested as a reference compound, produced partial substitution for PCP in rats and occasioned little responding on the PCP-associated lever in monkeys. These results demonstrate important differences between the behavioral effects of PCP and other types of hallucinogenic drugs such as LSD and ibogaine and do not support the hypothesis that the affinity of ibogaine for the PCP site on N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors plays a major role in its acute behavioral effects.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Conditioning, Operant / drug effects
  • Discrimination Learning / drug effects
  • Discrimination, Psychological / drug effects*
  • Hallucinogens / pharmacology*
  • Ibogaine / pharmacology*
  • Lysergic Acid Diethylamide / pharmacology
  • Macaca mulatta
  • Male
  • Phencyclidine / pharmacology*
  • Rats
  • Rats, Inbred Strains
  • Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate / antagonists & inhibitors
  • Species Specificity

Substances

  • Hallucinogens
  • Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate
  • Ibogaine
  • Lysergic Acid Diethylamide
  • Phencyclidine