Tolerance to nicotine's effects in the elevated plus-maze and increased anxiety during withdrawal

Abstract

In the elevated plus-maze test of anxiety, nicotine (0.1 mg/kg sc; 30 min after injection) had a significant anxiogenic effect, shown by specific decreases in the percentage of time spent on the open arms and in the percentage of open-arm entries. Tolerance developed to this anxiogenic effect after 7 days of nicotine treatment (0.1 mg/kg/day). Five minutes after an acute injection, nicotine (0.1 mg/kg) was ineffective, but after 7 days of treatment a significant anxiolytic effect, shown by specific increases in the percentage of time spent on the open arms and in the percentage of open-arm entries, emerged. After 14 days of nicotine treatment, tolerance developed to this anxiolytic effect. There was a complete dissociation between the effects of nicotine on the measures of anxiety, and on the locomotor activity as measured by closed-arm entries. No changes in closed-arm entries were found after acute administration of nicotine, but rats tested 30 min after their 7th injection made significantly fewer, and those tested 5 min after their 14th injection made significantly more, entries than their respective controls. Rats that were tested after 24 h withdrawal from six daily nicotine injections showed a significant anxiogenic effect. A low dose of nicotine (5 ng) injected into the dorsal hippocampus was without effect in vehicle pretreated rats, but it was able to reverse the anxiogenic effect found after 24 h of withdrawal from 6 days of nicotine treatment.