Place preference for the psychostimulant cathinone is blocked by pretreatment with a dopamine release inhibitor.

1. The objective of Exp. 1 was to determine whether intracerebroventricular (ICV) injection of cathinone CATH (8.0-32 micrograms) would produce a dose-dependent conditioned place preference (CPP) and/or activation in rats. Results indicate that rats conditioned with 16 or 32 micrograms doses of CATH significantly increased the time spent in their less preferred side, whereas rats conditioned with the 8.0 micrograms dose failed to show any shift from baseline preference. The 16 and 32 micrograms doses of CATH also significantly (p < .004) increased activity by more than 65% of baseline. 2. Exp. 2 was designed to determine whether ICV pretreatment with a dopamine release inhibitor CGS 10746B (CGS; 15 micrograms/rat) would block place conditioning produced by CATH. The results demonstrate that CGS pretreatment effectively blocked CATH-induced place conditioning and the CATH-induced elevation of activity.