The acute effects of different doses of tramadol on neuronal activity of medial prefrontal cortex in rats

Tramadol is an opioid analgesic with monoamine reuptake inhibitory effects. Although tramadol has been widely used to control pain, there is controversy about the risk of abuse. Therefore, in the present study, the acute effects of tramadol on neuronal activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), which is one of the important centers of the reward system, were investigated electrophysiologically.

Tramadol was injected interperitoneally (12.5 and 25 mk/kg) or subcutaneously (40 mg/kg) and its effect on the firing of mPFC neurons was investigated, using in vivo extracellular single unit recording.

Tramadol could not significantly affect neural activity in mPFC, suggesting no acute and rapid effect on mPFC.

The present results showed that neural activity in mPFC was not rapidly affected by acute application of tramadol. Since the role of mPFC in tramadol addiction has been elucidated, it can be concluded that these effects may be due to delayed responses or chronic use of tramadol.