Ethanol consumption following acute fenfluramine, fluoxetine, and dietary tryptophan

Abstract

Male Sprague-Dawley rats fed a commercial diet with or without tryptophan supplementation (0.5% L-TRP) were treated with single IP injections of fenfluramine or fluoxetine. Rats had been water deprived prior to injection and food was removed during the period of fluid availability. They were offered, following drug or saline injection, water, a 5% ethanol solution, or an isocaloric sucrose solution (8.75%) for 1 h. Fenfluramine injection significantly reduced intake of all fluids, but its effect on ethanol was significantly greater than for water or sucrose solutions. Fluoxetine suppressed water and ethanol intake but not that of sucrose; the reduction in ethanol intake was significantly greater than for water. Ingestion of the tryptophan-supplemented diet in the absence of any drug treatment had no effect on fluid intake. However, the tryptophan supplementation significantly enhanced the reduction in ethanol intake induced by fenfluramine and fluoxetine. It appears that both fenfluramine and fluoxetine decrease ethanol intake more so than that of water or sucrose and that this effect is exacerbated by tryptophan supplementation.