Predicting the dependence liability of stimulant drugs

This paper reviews animal drug self-administration methods and describes their usefulness in providing information about the dependence liability of psychomotor stimulant drugs. Specifically, animal self-administration results with a wide range of psychomotor stimulants is reviewed, and approaches for measuring the relative reinforcing efficacy of different drugs in animals are described. Another section considers the relationship between the reinforcing and anorectic properties of appetite suppressant drugs. The correspondence of the animal drug self-aministration results to clinical information relevant to human drug abuse is also discussed.