Antidotal effects of buprenorphine on the behavioral alterations accompanying cocaine and combined cocaine-ethanol toxicity.

The present study examined the effects of buprenorphine (BUP), a mixed opioid agonist-antagonist, on the behaviors accompanying cocaine (COCA) and combined cocaine-ethanol (EtOH) toxicity in the surviving mice. Using the activity-counting instrument Supermex, the relationship between the toxic signs and the corresponding behavioral alterations could be assessed. In the COCA-only group, a prolonged increase in the activity counts was caused by a high dose of COCA (75 mg/kg ip). Furthermore, this COCA-induced hyperactivity included ataxic behaviors that were accompanied by visible toxic signs, which were not observed in the mice with no drug treatment. A depressive dose of EtOH (3 g/kg ip) did not significantly modify the mortality rate in the COCA-only group in spite of its anticonvulsant effects. However, the peak activity counts in the survivors were attenuated in the COCA-EtOH group as compared to the COCA-only group. BUP attenuated the mortality rate in both COCA and COCA-EtOH groups, even without any anticonvulsant effects, but the most effective dose differed between the COCA (BUP: 0.25 mg/kg ip) and COCA-EtOH (BUP: 0.5 mg/kg ip) groups. At these BUP doses, the prolonged suppression of the morbid hyperactivity in the COCA-BUP group and the restoration of normal behavior in the COCA-EtOH-BUP group both seemed to be correlated with a good prognosis in the survivors; there was an early recovery from an increased blood pressure (BP), increased heart rate (HR) and decreased respiratory rate (RR) in the COCA-BUP group, and an early recovery from a decreased BP, decreased HR and decreased RR in the COCA-EtOH-BUP group.