Validation of a behavioral economic purchase task for assessing drug abuse liability.

ABSTRACT: Behavioral economic purchase tasks quantify drug demand (i.e. reinforcing value of a drug) and have been used extensively to assess the value of various drugs among current users. However, purchase tasks have been rarely used with unfamiliar drugs to address a compound's abuse liability, and the current study sought to validate the paradigm in this capacity. Using a double-blind placebo-controlled within-subjects drug challenge design, the study evaluated differential drug demand on an experimental drug purchase task for a 20 mg dose of oral D-amphetamine (versus placebo), a prototypic psychostimulant, in 98 stimulant-naïve participants. Compared with placebo, amphetamine significantly increased intensity, breakpoint and O_max , and significantly decreased elasticity. Mechanistic

SUBMITTER: MacKillop J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6351223 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature