Honors Program
Honors in Psychology
Date of Award
5-2015
Thesis Professor(s)
Russell W. Brown
Thesis Professor Department
Psychology
Abstract
One of the most common childhood disorders, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) places individuals at a higher risk for nicotine (NIC) dependence. Approximately 37.2% of individuals with ADHD currently smoke compared to the 18.3% of individuals with no record of mental illness. Methylphenidate (MPH; Trade name Ritalin) is the most commonly prescribed treatment for ADHD. Research regarding the synergistic effects of MPH and NIC, however, is divided. Some research indicates that MPH may enhance susceptibility to NIC effects, whereas other studies report that MPH may inhibit sensitization to NIC. The present study examines the effects of pre-exposure to MPH (1.0 mg/kg) on the behavioral effects of NIC (0.5 mg/kg) in adolescent male and female Sprague-Dawley rats. We used behavioral sensitization and conditioned place preference (CPP) on animals postnatal day (P)28-50; this is defined as adolescence in rats. For behavioral sensitization, results revealed a significant interaction between day of testing, drug pre-exposure, and adolescent drug treatment (p = .004). On the other hand, CPP results revealed a significant interaction between adolescent drug treatment and drug pre-exposure (p = .031). Findings suggest that pre-exposure to MPH reduces behavioral sensitization to NIC during adolescence. In addition, results indicate that MPH enhances NIC CPP in adolescent male and female rats, suggesting that MPH may enhance the rewarding effect of NIC.
Document Type
Honors Thesis - Open Access
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Leedy, Kristen K., "The Synergistic Effects of Methylphenidate on the Behavioral Effects of Nicotine" (2015). Undergraduate Honors Theses. Paper 287. https://dc.etsu.edu/honors/287
Copyright
Copyright by the authors.