Drug discrimination training during chronic drug treatment affects the development of tolerance

The purpose of this experiment was to evaluate the extent to which continued drug discrimination training during chronic drug treatment affects the development of tolerance. Rats were trained to discriminate distilled water from 0.75 mg/kg amphetamine in a two-lever drug discrimination task. Two groups were then given a chronic drug regimen of 13 daily injections of either distilled water or 10 mg/kg amphetamine. Drug discrimination training was continued for half of each chronic drug group. Tolerance was apparent only in the group that was not trained during the chronic amphetamine treatment. The data support the conclusion that continued training throughout the chronic drug treatment provides the opportunity for reinforced correct responding as both nondrug- and drug-cue states are gradually shifted by the chronic drug regimen.