Effects of Acute Pramipexole on Preference for Gambling-Like Schedules of Reinforcement in Rats
Document Type
Article
Journal/Book Title/Conference
Psychopharmacology
Volume
213
Issue
1
Publisher
Springer Verlag
Publication Date
2010
First Page
11
Last Page
18
Abstract
Rationale
Pramipexole and other direct dopamine agonist medications have been implicated in the development of impulsive behavior such as pathological gambling among those taking the drug to control symptoms of Parkinson’s disease or restless leg syndrome. Few laboratory studies examining pramipexole’s effects on gambling-like behavior have been conducted.
Objectives
The present study used a rodent model approximating some aspects of human gambling to examine within-subject effects of acute pramipexole (0.03, 0.1, 0.18, and 0.3 mg/kg) on rat’s choices to earn food reinforcement by completing variable-ratio (VR; i.e., gambling-like) or fixed-ratio (FR) response requirements.
Results
In a condition in which the VR alternative was rarely selected, all but the lowest dose of pramipexole significantly increased choice of the VR alternative (an average of 15% above saline). The same doses did not affect choice significantly in a control condition designed to evaluate the involvement of nonspecific drug effects. Pramipexole increased latencies to initiate trials (+9.12 s) and to begin response runs on forced-choice trials (VR = +0.21 s; FR = +0.88 s), but did not affect measures of response perseveration (conditional probabilities of “staying”).
Conclusions
The findings are consistent with clinical reports linking pramipexole to the expression of increased gambling in humans. Results are discussed in the context of neurobehavioral evidence suggesting that dopamine agonists increase sensitivity to reward delay and disrupt appropriate feedback from negative outcomes.
Recommended Citation
P.S. Johnson, Madden, G.J., Brewer, A.T., Pinkston, J.W. and Fowler, S.C. (2010) “Effects of acute pramipexole on preference for gambling-like schedules of reinforcement in rats,” Psychopharmacology 213(1):11-18.
Comments
Originally published by Springer Verlag. Publisher's PDF and HTML fulltext available through remote link.
Note: Gregory Madden was affiliated with the University of Kansas at time of publication.