The development of morphine withdrawal in the fetal and infant rat.
Item
-
Title
-
The development of morphine withdrawal in the fetal and infant rat.
-
Identifier
-
AAI9732933
-
identifier
-
9732933
-
Creator
-
Jones, Kathy Lynne.
-
Contributor
-
Adviser: Gordon A. Barr
-
Date
-
1997
-
Language
-
English
-
Publisher
-
City University of New York.
-
Subject
-
Psychology, Psychobiology | Psychology, Developmental | Psychology, Physiological
-
Abstract
-
Of the neurobehavioral effects that can be produced by opiate drugs, some of the most serious by far are the complex set of symptoms that comprise the neonatal abstinence syndrome. The experiments of this thesis were therefore designed to construct a model to allow further investigation of the opiate withdrawal syndrome in the developing animal. The goal was to describe in detail the unconditioned behavioral changes that follow precipitated withdrawal from chronic exposure to morphine during development and to define specific anatomical mechanisms that may mediate the withdrawal syndrome in the rat.;This was a 2-stage process. In the first stage, the dam or the rat pup was treated chronically with morphine. Injections of naltrexone were given to the fetus or pup to precipitate withdrawal. Postnatal animals were tested at age 7, 14, 21, and 42. Fetuses were tested in utero at gestation day 20. Three major developmental patterns of withdrawal emerged. There were abstinence behaviors that were unique to the 7 or 14 day old pup. These included head swaying, hindpaw movements, rolling, and stretching. Other behaviors appeared only in the 21 or 42 day old pup. These behaviors were burrowing, diarrhea, jumping, teeth chattering, and wet dog shakes and constitute the adult withdrawal syndrome. Finally, there were behaviors labeled developmentally continuous behaviors that were characteristic of animals in withdrawal at all ages. These included walking forward and failure to be quiet. Morphine exposed fetuses that were treated with naltrexone showed an increase in behaviors such as body curls, face wiping, forelimb movements, mouth movements, and were quiet less often as compared to control animals.;The goal of the second stage was to examine the role of specific neural sites in the precipitated opiate withdrawal syndrome in the 7 day old rat, concentrating on three brain regions known to be involved in the opiate withdrawal syndrome in the adult rat; the amygdala, the periaqueductal gray (PAG), and the locus ceruleus. Injections of any of several doses of methylnaloxonium into the locus ceruleus and PAG elicited physical signs of opiate withdrawal with subtle differences between the two sites. Injections of methylnaloxonium into the amygdala produced no behavioral change.
-
Type
-
dissertation
-
Source
-
PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
-
degree
-
Ph.D.
