Stress and adenosine: I. Effect of methylxanthine and amphetamine stimulants on learned helplessness in rats.

In 3 experiments, the authors examined the effect of methylxanthine and amphetamine stimulants on deficits in shuttle-escape responding produced by earlier exposure to inescapable electric shock in rats. Caffeine completely reversed escape deficits in inescapably shocked rats when injected just before shuttle-escape testing but failed to prevent a test deficit when injected before shock pretreatment. Dose-response curves indicated that, whereas caffeine and theophylline were equally effective at reversing escape deficits, amphetamine not only failed to improve performance in preshocked rats but retarded escape in restrained (no-shock) controls. This amphetamine-induced deficit was reversed by cotreatment with caffeine. These data are discussed in terms of the role of adenosine receptor activation in helplessness and conservation-withdrawal.