Computer-controlled drug doses for IV drug self-administration.

This report describes a novel procedure for computer-controlled drug-dose determination for IV drug self-administration studies. By modifying the duration of each infusion of a single concentration of a drug solution, five or more unit doses (mg/kg/inj) can be dispensed from the same syringe. The advantages of this procedure include the following: (a) it is not necessary to prepare a new syringe for each dose change, (b) the sterility of the IV catheter line is broken less often and, (c) the confounding effect of flushing through the catheter line with the previous drug dose is avoided. This procedure is accurate and reliable and can be applied to multiple sessions of any duration across days or weeks.