Intravenous self‐administration studies with l‐deprenyl (selegiline) in monkeys

l‐Deprenyl and its stereoisomer d‐deprenyl did not maintain intravenous self‐administration behavior in rhesus monkeys. In contrast, l‐methamphetamine, the major metabolite of l‐deprenyl, as well as the baseline drug, cocaine, maintained high rates of intravenous self‐administration behavior. Treatment with l‐deprenyl doses up to 1.0 mg/kg before self‐administration sessions failed to alter self‐administration of either cocaine or l‐methamphetamine. Thus l‐deprenyl did not appear to have cocaine‐ or meth‐amphetamine‐like reinforcing properties in monkeys and was ineffective in altering established patterns of psychomotor‐stimulant self‐administration behavior. These results support clinical findings that despite long‐term use of l‐deprenyl for the treatment of Parkinson's disease by large numbers of patients, no instances of abuse have been documented. l‐Deprenyl has recently been suggested as a potential medication for the treatment of various types of drug abuse, including cocaine abuse, but its failure to produce selective effects in decreasing cocaine or methamphetamine self‐administration behavior in the present experiments makes such an application seem unlikely. Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (1994) 56, 774–780; doi: