The anorectic action of naloxone is attenuated by adaptation to a food-deprivation schedule

Recent studies have shown that naloxone and other opiate antagonists can reduce the amounts of food and water consumed by laboratory animals, a finding consistent with a role for endogenous opioids in the control of appetite. Because there have also been some failures to observe an anorectic action of naloxone, a study was carried out in which the effects of the drug on food intake were investigated using two different experimental procedures. In naive rats deprived of food for 24 h, both naloxone (0.1, 1.0 and 10.0 mg/kg) and fenfluramine (1.0, 3.0 and 10.0 mg/kg) produced dose-related decreases in food and water intake. In rats which has been adapted to receiving food for only 6 h each day, fenfluramine produced a similar effect whereas naloxone had no effect on food intake and reduced water consumption only at the highest dose. A second experiment showed that the different actions of a 1.0 mg/kg dose of naloxone in the two procedures were not due to differences in the duration of the immediately preceding period of food deprivation or in the time during which the rats were handled. These results show that the anorectic action of naloxone can be attenuated by adaptation to a schedule of repeated food deprivation.