ArticlePharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior2017
Sex differences in abuse-related neurochemical and behavioral effects of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) in rats.
Article in Pharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 21 citations in OpenAlex.
- Ovarian Hormones and Addictive Behaviour Vulnerability: Insights From Preclinical Studies.Addiction biology · 2025Pooled it
- αMolecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- History, pharmacology and therapeutic mechanisms of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA).British journal of pharmacology · 2026Review
- A repeated low-dose regimen of MDMA has transient next-day effects on locomotor activity, anxiety-like behavior, and brain serotonin levels, with no effect on anhedonia-like behavior, in both female and male rats.Psychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Next-Generation MDMA Analogue SDMA: Pharmacological and Metabolic Insights.ACS chemical neuroscience · 2025Article
- Structure-Activity Relationship of Synthetic Cathinones: An Updated Review.ACS pharmacology & translational science · 2024Review
- A Multimodal Preclinical Assessment of MDMA in Female and Male Rats: Prohedonic, Cognition Disruptive, and Prosocial Effects.Psychedelic medicine (New Rochelle, N.Y.) · 2024Article
- Characterization of the Neurochemical and Behavioral Effects of the Phenethylamine 2-Cl-4,5-MDMA in Adolescent and Adult Male Rats.The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology · 2024Article
- Balancing Therapeutic Efficacy and Safety of MDMA and Novel MDXX Analogues as Novel Treatments for Autism Spectrum Disorder.Psychedelic medicine (New Rochelle, N.Y.) · 2023Review
- Female mice are more prone to develop an addictive-like phenotype for sugar consumption.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Sex and Gender Differences in the Effects of Novel Psychoactive Substances.Brain sciences · 2020Review
- Effects of acute and repeated treatment with serotonin 5-HT2A receptor agonist hallucinogens on intracranial self-stimulation in rats.Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology · 2019Article
- Bath salts and polyconsumption: in search of drug-drug interactions.Psychopharmacology · 2019Review
- Neurochemical and Behavioral Profiling in Male and Female Rats of the Psychedelic Agent 25I-NBOMe.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is a substrate for dopamine (DA), norepinephrine and serotonin (5HT) transporters that produces greater pharmacological effects on certain endpoints in females than males in both clinical and rodent preclinical studies. To evaluate potential for sex differences in abuse-related MDMA effects, the present study compared MDMA effects on intracranial self-stimulation (ICSS) and on in vivo microdialysis measurements of DA or 5HT in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) in female and male Sprague-Dawley rats. For ICSS studies, electrodes were implanted in the medial forebrain bundle and rats trained to press for electrical stimulation over a range of frequencies (56-158Hz, 0.05 log increments) under a fixed-ratio 1 schedule, and the potency (0.32-3.2mg/kg, 10min pretreatment) and time course (3.2. mg/kg, 10-180min pretreatment) of MDMA effects were determined. For in vivo microdialysis, rats were implanted with bilateral guide cannulae targeting the NAc, and the time course of MDMA effects (1.0-3.2mg/kg, 0-180min) on DA and 5HT was determined. MDMA produced qualitatively similar effects in both sexes on ICSS (both increases in low ICSS rates maintained by low brain-stimulation frequencies and decreases in high ICSS rates maintained by high brain-stimulation frequencies) and microdialysis (increases in both DA and 5HT). The duration and peak levels of both abuse-related ICSS facilitation and increases in NAc DA were longer in females. MDMA was also more potent to increase 5HT in females. These results provide evidence for heightened sensitivity of females to abuse-related behavioral and neurochemical effects of MDMA in rats.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.