Treatment with a serotonin-depleting regimen of MDMA prevents conditioned place preference to sex in male rats.

Abstract

Among young adults, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, "ecstasy") is a popular drug of abuse, and anecdotal evidence indicates that repeated use of MDMA may result in impairments in sexual function and decreased sex drive in human users. There has been little investigation of the effects of MDMA on sexual function in rodents. In the present study, the authors determined that in male rats (Rattus novegicus) tested in a sexually naïve or a sexually experienced state, administration of a serotonin (5-HT)-depleting regimen of MDMA did not produce a change in mount, intromission, and ejaculation latency or in mount and intromission frequency compared with such latency and frequency in vehicle-treated control rats. In contrast to vehicle-treated rats, MDMA-treated rats did not form a conditioned place preference (CPP) to sex. Failure of MDMA-treated rats to form CPP to sex may be due to MDMA-induced impairments in circuits mediating sexual reward.

The differential expression of male sexual behavior in the Lewis, Fischer and Sprague-Dawley rat strains

“…One possibility for these reported differences concerns the specific assay of sexual behavior used in the present experiment, i.e., it may have been one that exacerbated behavioral differences not generally reported in such assessments. However, the fact that the outbred SD rats displayed behaviors comparable to those reported in other assessments with this strain suggests that the specific preparation used here was able to index sexual behavior appropriately (e.g., see Straiko, Gudelsky, & Coolen, 2007). Specifically, when controlling for session length, SD rats in the present study were comparable in both frequency (mount, intromission and ejaculation) and latencies (mount and ejaculation) relative to those reported by Straiko and colleagues.…”

“…Although the intromission ratio calculated for Straiko's subjects was 15% lower than that presented in the current report (35% vs. 50%, respectively), this may result from differences in the duration of exposure to receptive females. Straiko et al (2007) were interested in the subjects copulating to a single ejaculation to use for place conditioning, and thus there was no recording of a PEI, precluding a comparison. Aside from specific reports using the SD strain, male sexual behavior has been well characterized in other outbred rodent strains (e.g., for Wistar rats see Agmo & Berenfeld, 1990;Agmo & Gomez, 1993;Camacho et al, 2004;Martinez & Paredes, 2001;Paredes & Alonso, 1997; for Long-Evans rats see Damsma, Pfaus, Wenkstern, Phillips, & Fibiger, 1992;Pfaus et al, 1990;Robertson, Pfaus, Atkinson, Matsumura, Phillips, & Fibiger, 1991;Westerman, Roma, Creed, Hurwitz, & Dominguez, 2009).…”

Sexual reward in male rats: Effects of sexual experience on conditioned place preferences associated with ejaculation and intromissions

“…Another variable in CPP experiments is the number of conditioning trials: Either single (Straiko et al, 2007) or multiple pairings (Garcia Horsman and Paredes, 2004; Hughes et al, 1990; Miller and Baum, 1987) result in mating-induced CPP. Since one objective of the current study was to investigate the influence of sexual experience on sex-induced CPP, single pairings were utilized for the majority of the experiments in order to prevent reaching a ceiling of mating-induced CPP.…”

The role of orgasm in the development and shaping of partner preferences

“…Interestingly, drugs of abuse like amphetamines enhance D1-type receptor activity, resulting in the incapacity of voles and humans to develop pair bonds (Liu et al, 2010; Syvertsen et al, 2015). Other drugs of abuse, like methylenedioxy methamphetamine (MDMA or ‘Ecstasy’), may enhance levels of serotonin to a point where it prevents males from learning via association with sexual reward (Straiko, Gudelsky, & Coolen, 2007). This probably occurs as a result of the exaggerated serotonergic activity in the NAc and other brain areas such as the mPOA, MeA, VTA, and PAG following MDMA injections (Thompson, Hunt, & McGregor, 2009).…”