Response rate decreasing effects of naloxone during chronic sucrose availabilityKroll, Cindy; Fischer, Bradford D.Behavioural Pharmacology: August 2017 - Volume 28 - Issue 5 - p 401–404 doi: 10.1097/FBP.0000000000000306 Short Reports Abstract Author Information Studies in animal models suggest that sugar deprivation following excessive intake elicits some opioid-like withdrawal signs. In the present study, opioid-like effects of excessive sucrose intake were further characterized in C57BL/6 mice by comparing the effects of the opioid antagonist naloxone on food-reinforced responding before and during sucrose availability and, in parallel experiments, following chronic morphine administration. Results show that naloxone produced time-dependent and dose-dependent decreases in operant response rates after 4 weeks of excessive sucrose consumption, and that these effects were comparable with those produced by chronic morphine injections. These findings extend the observation that excessive sucrose consumption may produce opioid-like withdrawal signs, and suggest that operant assays of withdrawal-suppressed behaviors may be useful for further study of excessive sucrose consumption. Department of Biomedical Sciences, Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, Camden, New Jersey, USA Correspondence to Bradford D. Fischer, PhD, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, 401 South Broadway, Camden, NJ 08103, USA E-mail: fischerb@rowan.edu Received December 6, 2016 Accepted March 14, 2017 Copyright © 2017 YEAR Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.