Effects of food deprivation on subjective responses to d-amphetamine in humans

Abstract

The effects of 24 hours of food deprivation on the subjective response to 10 mg oral d-amphetamine were studied in 12 healthy normal volunteers. A within-subjects design was used in which subjects ingested amphetamine and placebo capsules in both a fed and a fasting state. Each of the four experimental conditions—FED/DRUG, FED/PLACEBO, FAST/DRUG, FAST/PLACEBO—was enacted twice according to a randomized block design. Three subjective effects questionnaires, the Profile of Mood States, the Addiction Research Center Inventory, and the Visual Analogue Scale, were completed prior to and 1, 3 and 6 hr after the early morning capsule ingestion. Typical elevations in such subjective effects as elation and vigor were obtained after amphetamine ingestion in both feeding conditions, but fasting neither potentiated nor attenuated the drug response. Subjects at the end of the session, however, were more likely in the FAST/DRUG condition than in the FED/DRUG condition to label the capsule they had ingested at the beginning of the session as a stimulant.