Vaporized Cannabis differentially modulates sexual behavior of female rats according to the dose

Publication date: Available online 20 October 2019Source: Pharmacology Biochemistry and BehaviorAuthor(s): Alejandra Mondino, Santiago Fernandez, Carlos Garcia-Carnelli, María José Castro, Eleuterio Umpierrez, Pablo Torterolo, Atilio Falconi, Daniella AgratiAbstractStudies exploring the effect of compounds that modulate the endocannabinoid system on sexual behavior have yielded contradictory results. However, the effect of smoked Cannabis in women has been consistently associated with an increase in sexual drive. Therefore, it can be speculated that vaporized cannabis will augment sexually motivated components of the sexual behavior of female rats. To test this hypothesis, we compared the sexual behavior of late-proestrous female rats in a bilevel chamber after vaporizing 0, 200 or 400 mg of Cannabis flowers (containing 18% of delta-9-THC and undetectable levels of cannabidiol) during 10 min. We found that both doses of Cannabis increased the duration of the lordosis response, whereas the highest dose also reduced the lordosis quotient of females. The lowest dose of Cannabis augmented the display of hops and darts without altering the expression of sexual solicitations of females, while the highest one did not affect the expression of hops and darts but reduced sexual solicitations. These effects were not accompanied by alterations of females' ambulatory behavior. The increment of the duration of lordosis response produced by both doses of Cannabis could be associated t...
Source: Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior - Category: Biochemistry Source Type: research