Gabapentin Discriminative Stimulus Effects

Author

• Andrew Donar, Northern Michigan UniversityFollow

Date of Award

5-2026

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Psychological Science

Program

Psychological Science (MS)

First Advisor/Chairperson

Adam Prus

Abstract

Gabapentin (Neurontin®), an anticonvulsant drug, is primarily prescribed for neuropathic pain and epileptic seizures. Gabapentin is an inhibitor of the voltage gated calcium channel (VGCC) subunit α₂δ-1. Due to its unique binding site, gabapentin is widely thought to have low abuse potential, and therefore has had increasing prescription rates. Increasing overall use of gabapentin has led to concerns of recreational abuse and polysubstance use with alcohol and opioids. The interoceptive effect similarities between gabapentin and alcohol demand further investigation. Drug discrimination is a standard operant paradigm in which subjects are trained to differentiate between one drug’s subjective effects versus others in an operant task.  The proposed study aimed to determine if alcohol may substitute or enhance the drug effects of gabapentin when established as a discriminative stimulus as well as GABA_A and NMDA ligands. Ten female Sprague-Dawley rats were trained on a drug discrimination paradigm using a 300.0 mg/kg gabapentin training dose as a discriminative stimulus. Gabapentin was successfully established as a discriminative stimulus with full substitution (> 80% drug-lever responding) for the training dose and 100.0 mg/kg. The GABA_A receptor agonist muscimol and NMDA noncompetitive receptor antagonist MK-801 partially substituted for the gabapentin discriminative stimulus. NMDA receptor agonism attenuated the effects of gabapentin. Ethanol partially substituted for gabapentin and potentiated gabapentin’s stimulus effects in combination testing. The results indicate partial overlap of the stimulus effects between gabapentin and GABA_A and NMDA ligands.

Recommended Citation

Donar, Andrew, "Gabapentin Discriminative Stimulus Effects" (2026). All NMU Master's Theses. 911.
https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/911

Access Type

Open Access

Justification for Restricting Access

In order to publish findings.