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Biomedical subjects

B K Alexander

Publications and source records attributed to B K Alexander.

16 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1988

Contributions of taste factors and gender to opioid preference in C57BL and DBA mice.

C57BL/6J and DBA/2J mouse strains have been characterized as morphine preferrers and avoiders, respectively (Horowitz et al. 1977). Previously, sweetened morphine solutions were presented with a water alternative, primarily with male subjects. Because sweetness may affect the endogenous opioid system and rodents have shown strain and sex differences in taste preferences, this study looked for strain- and gender-related taste preferences that might have affected opiate consumption. Preference for sweetened and unsweetened morphine and etonitazene was compared across gender and strain. In all choice tests, the control was a similar tasting quinine sulphate solution. Under these conditions, C57BL/6J mice continued to show strong preference for morphine. However, DBA/2J mice drank approximately equal amounts of morphine and quinine solutions, rather than avoiding morphine as when water was the alternative. Both strains appeared surprisingly indifferent to the synthetic opioid etonitazene, compared because it is potent at concentrations having barely perceptible bitterness. This raises the possibility of unexpected differences in post-ingestional effects between morphine and etonitazene. Contrary to reports of gender differences in sweet preference in rats, none were found in either strain of mouse. Neither were there any significant sex differences in opiate preference in either strain. C57 mice preferred sweetness more than did DBA mice.

Animals↗
PubMed1985

Why treat doctors like pushers?

Harsher laws and enforcement procedures are making Canadian physicians more vulnerable to conviction as drug traffickers. The authors question this development on the grounds that it extends a drug prohibition policy that has failed in the past and has incurred intolerable social costs. To help envision an alternative, the authors discuss conflicting claims about the British tradition of permitting doctors to prescribe narcotics to addicts. They conclude that, with some restrictions, allowing Canadian doctors to prescribe narcotics according to their judgements of patient needs would be more efficacious than increasing the penalties they face for violating nonmedical norms.

Canada↗
PubMed1981

Effect of early and later colony housing on oral ingestion of morphine in rats.

Male and female rats were raised from weaning either in isolation or in a large colony. At 65 days of age, half the rats in each environment were moved to the other. At 80 days, the animals were given continuous access to water and to a sequence of 7 solutions: 3 sweet or bitter-sweet control solutions and 4 different concentrations of morphine hydrochloride (MHCl) in 10% sucrose solution. Rats housed in the colony at the time of testing drank less MHCl solution than isolated rats, but no less of the control solutions. Colony-dwelling rats previously housed in isolation tended to drink more MHCl solution than those housed in the colony since weaning, but this effect reached statistical significance only at the lowest concentration of MHCl. These data were related to the hypothesis that colony rats avoid morphine because it interferes with complex, species-specific behavior.

Administration, Oral↗
PubMed1980

A drug dispenser to measure individual drinking in rat colonies.

This article describes an automated device which substantially facilitates the measurement of oral drug consumption by individual rats housed in a colony with a common drinking source. To drink, each animal enters a Plexiglas runway, triggering a video system which records the rat's identifying dye mark, and its consumption of each of two liquids. Rats learn to operate the device easily and rapidly. Data for 24 hours can be collected on a one-hour videotape.

Animals↗
PubMed1979

The effect of housing and gender on preference for morphine-sucrose solutions in rats.

To determine whether opiate consumption is affected by laboratory housing, individually caged and colony rats were given a choice between water and progressively more palatable morphine-sucrose solutions. The isolated rats drank significantly more of the opiate solution, and females drank significantly more than males. In the experimental phase during which morphine-sucrose solution consumption was greatest, the isolated females drank five times as much, and the isolated males sixteen times as much morphine (mg/kg) as the colony females and males respectively.

Animals↗
PubMed1978

The effect of housing and gender on morphine self-administration in rats.

To determine the effect of housing conditions on morphine self-administration, rats isolated in standard laboratory cages and rats living socially in a large open box (8.8 m2) were given morphine in solution (0.5 mg/ml) as their only source of fluid for 57 days. They were then exposed to a series of 3-day cycles previously shown by Nichols et al. (1956) to increase self-administration of morphine in caged rats. On morphine/water choice days late in the period of forced consumption, between the Nichols cycles, and during a subsequent period of abstinence, the isolated rats drank significantly more morphine solution than the social rats, and the females drank significantly more morphine solution than the males. During the four choice days in the Nichols Cycle Period the isolated rats increased their consumption, but the socially housed animals decreased theirs.

Animals↗
PubMed1977

Interpersonal perception in addict families.

A technique called the "Interperception Matrix" was devised to investigate interpersonal perception in eight families in which addicted offspring maintained close parental ties. The addict families were compared with eight matched control families. Several differences were found between the two types of families. In addict families: (a) addicts, their fathers, and their mothers all held the addicts in low regard; (b) addicts were described as very different from their parents; (c) parents and addicts disagreed more in their perception of the addicts; (d) there was a consensus that the addicts' major flaws were passivity and dependence; and (e) the addicts' mothers described themselves as less agreeable and more passive. Addict families and control families were similar in their descriptions of an ideal for the offspring and in generally favorable descriptions of both parents. These results extend and partially validate clinical observations that social perception in addict families serves to perpetuate opiate addiction by undermining addicts' self-esteem. These data, in conjunction with new understandings emerging from the addiction literature, support an approach to addiction therapy based on reframing family perception.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1977

An automated procedure for correlation of q-sorts.

A set of computer programs which calculates correlations between Q-sort decks is described. These programs automatically process Q-sort decks in which the items are printed directly on IBM cards, thus enabling the rapid analysis of large volumes of Q-sort data. An application of this method to the assessment of family interaction is described.

Electronic Data Processing↗
PubMed1967

Mice: individual recognition by olfactory cues.

Mice discriminated between two male mice of the same inbred strain on the basis of olfactory cues. Mice could also discriminate by olfactory cues between two different species, C3H Mus musculus and Peromyscus maniculatus, and between males and females.

Animals↗