Publication Date:
1982-10-08
Description:
Rats whose pregnancies were surgically terminated on day 17 of gestation were injected with morphine, morphine plus naloxone hydrochloride, or saline, and then tested for maternal responsiveness toward foster young. Morphine treatment alone significantly disrupted the rate of onset and quality of maternal responsiveness. Concurrent administration of naloxone to morphine-injected rats reinstated the rapid onset of behavioral responsiveness toward foster young, such that the responsiveness of the rats treated with both morphine and naloxone was indistinguishable from that shown by saline-injected controls. The disruptive effects of morphine did not appear to result from a general reduction in activity levels as measured in an open-field apparatus. These findings suggest that the normal onset and maintenance of maternal behavior in the rat may be regulated by endogenous opiates.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Bridges, R S -- Grimm, C T -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1982 Oct 8;218(4568):166-8.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7123227" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
Behavior, Animal/*drug effects
;
Drug Antagonism
;
Female
;
Morphine/*pharmacology
;
Naloxone/*pharmacology
;
Pregnancy
;
Rats
;
Rats, Inbred Strains
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
