The development of tolerance to caffeine's alerting effects: A learning model.
Item
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Title
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The development of tolerance to caffeine's alerting effects: A learning model.
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Identifier
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AAI9218249
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identifier
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9218249
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Creator
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Lipschutz-Broch, Lauren.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Arthur Spielman
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Date
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1992
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Experimental | Psychology, Psychobiology | Health Sciences, Pharmacology
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Abstract
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Traditional theories view the development of drug tolerance, purely in terms of drug exposure (e.g. dose, interdrug interval). Alternative approaches study the influence of such nonpharmacological factors as the environmental cues present at the time of drug administration and the recipient's experiences and expectations. The contribution of stimuli that become associated with drug delivery has been incorporated in a Pavlovian classical conditioning model of drug tolerance. Unlike the traditional model, however, drug studies have demonstrated that the conditioned response (CR) elicited in anticipation of some drugs are opposite in direction to the unconditioned response (UR). The net result of CR and UR results in drug tolerance.;The present research focused on caffeine and tested three hypotheses: Caffeine initially alerts subjects; over repeated administrations, tolerance develops to caffeine's alerting effects; and lastly, caffeine tolerance is influenced by conditioning principles. Nineteen normal-sleeping, healthy, male subjects, were studied over 15 days of controlled coffee administration in the morning. After 250 mg caffeine, objective (Multiple Sleep Latency Test, MSLT) and subjective alertness were significantly increased throughout the day relative to baseline day (no caffeine). After 12 days of a morning coffee beverage (six caffeinated and six decaffeinated), the same dose of caffeine on Day 14 did not objectively alert subjects as much as on Day 1, thus tolerance develops.;To test the possible influences of conditioning, all subjects received 250 mg caffeine on Day 15, but eleven subjects were told they had received decaffeinated coffee and the remaining eight subjects were told they received caffeinated coffee. It was hypothesized that the subjects who expected decaffeinated would not elicit an opposite de-alerting response and would be more alerted by the caffeine than the group that expected caffeinated coffee. Statistical analysis revealed no difference in alertness between these two conditions. While the present data does not support a Pavlovian analysis of drug tolerance, problems with the time limit of the MSLT, small sample size, the caffeine vehicle and the population tested, as well as the theoretical model used to design the experiment, might have impacted adversely on the results.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
