Gamma-hydroxybutyric acid in male and female cynomolgus monkeys trained to discriminate 1.0 or 2.0 g/kg ethanol.

Gamma-hydroxybutyric acid has been proposed as a pharmacotherapy for alcoholism in part based on similar discriminative stimulus effects as ethanol. To date, drug discrimination studies with gamma-hydroxybutyric acid and ethanol have exclusively used rodents or pigeons as subjects. To evaluate possible differences between species, sex, and route of administration, this study investigated the substitution of gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (intragastrically or intramuscularly) for ethanol 30 or 60 min after administration in male (n=6) and female (n=7) cynomolgus monkeys trained to discriminate 1.0 and 2.0 g/kg ethanol. At least one dose of gamma-hydroxybutyric acid completely or partially substituted for ethanol in three of the 13 monkeys tested, with each case occurring in female monkeys. Ethanol-appropriate responding did not increase with gamma-hydroxybutyric acid dose. Monkeys were more sensitive to the response rate decreasing effects of gamma-hydroxybutyric acid administered intramuscularly compared with intragastrically. The lack of gamma-hydroxybutyric acid substitution for ethanol suggests that these drugs have different receptor bases for discrimination. Furthermore, the data do not strongly support shared discriminative stimulus effects as the rationale for gamma-hydroxybutyric acid pharmacotherapy for alcoholism.