SUBJECTIVE/REINFORCING EFFECTS OF HEROIN-BENZODIAZEPINE COMBINATIONS

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. An extensive body of clinical data indicates that opioid addicts regularly abuse benzodiazepines (BZs) in conjunction with heroin or methadone maintenance therapy. Recent research suggests that this form of polydrug abuse reflects an enhancement of the abuse-related effects of heroin and other opioid agonists by BZs. In rhesus monkeys trained to discriminate heroin from saline, the conventional non-selective BZ triazolam did not share discriminative stimulus effects with heroin. Furthermore, there was no interaction between the two drugs when administered in combination up to doses that reduced rates of responding below 50 per cent of control rates. In rhesus monkeys trained under a progressive ratio schedule of i.v. drug injection, both heroin and the conventional BZ lorazepam maintained dose-dependent and reliable self-administration. Preliminary studies indicate that combining a relatively low dose of heroin with a low dose of lorazepam resulted in a significant increase in self-administration compared to either drug individually.