The effects of food schedule adaptation on the ability of naloxone to suppress the acquisition of schedule-induced polydipsia

Naloxone suppressed the acquisition of schedule-induced polydipsia (SIP) in rats given no previous exposure to the feeding schedule. Adaptation to the feeding schedule prior to SIP acquisition attenuated this suppression. Specifically, water consumption, bout probability, licks/bout, and maximum lick rates during the interpellet interval (IPI) were significantly increased by adaptation. Although adaptation attenuated the suppressive effects of naloxone on SIP, this attenuation was not complete. Adapted, naloxone-treated subjects displayed both decreased water consumption and bout probability as compared to distilled water-treated controls. Unlike the effects of adaptation on naloxone's suppression of SIP, adaptation completely eliminated naloxone's suppression of feeding. That adapted subjects ate at control levels while still displaying a lower level of SIP suggests that the suppressive effects of naloxone on the acquisition of SIP is not an indirect effect of naloxone on feeding, but rather a direct effect of naloxone on developing SIP. Given that naloxone has a general suppressive effect on drinking (including SIP), what remains to be determined is why naloxone has no effect on established SIP. Possible explanations for this are discussed.