The magnitude of tolerance and dependence is defined in part by agonist concentration and duration of receptor exposure. Therefore, in the face of continued exposure to an opioid agonist, periodic reduction in opiate receptor occupancy should reduce tolerance. Alternately, we have shown that reversal of opiate agonist action yields increased glutamate release and NMDA-antagonist studies indicated that this release may lead to an exacerbation of tolerance. To address this issue, we observed the effect of transient daily antagonism by naloxone of otherwise continuous opioid receptor exposure on morphine tolerance development. Rats with intrathecal (i.t.) catheters and osmotic minipumps were assigned to one of the following 7-day infusion/treatment groups: group A: i.t. morphine (20 nmol/h) with daily subcutaneous (s.c.) injection of naloxone 0.6 mg/kg, group B: i.t. morphine (20 nmol/h) with daily s.c. saline, group C: i.t. saline (1 microl/h) with daily s.c. injection of naloxone 0.6 mg/kg, or, group D: i.t. saline (1 microl/h) with daily s.c. saline. Hot plate response latency was measured daily before and after the s.c. injection. The infusion was discontinued on day 7 and on day 8 the response of the rat to a probe dose of i.t. morphine (60 nmol) given as a bolus was observed. Elevated hot plate latencies were observed for groups A and B on day 1 of infusion and this declined over the following 3-4-day interval. Group B approached baseline, but by day 5 group A showed a mild hyperalgesia prior to each naloxone injection. Groups C and D showed no change in baseline latency. On day 8, 24 h after termination of morphine infusion, the magnitude of the analgesic response to the probe i.t. morphine was: group D = group C > group B > group A (P < 0.05, 1-way ANOVA). Thus, in contrast to the expectation that tolerance would be reduced by periodic blockade of opiate receptor occupancy, rats that had daily transient receptor antagonism showed a greater tolerance than rats with simple continuous receptor occupancy. These results are, however, consistent with work showing that (i) naloxone will evoke spinal glutamate release in spinal morphine tolerant rats and (ii) spinal NMDA receptor antagonism ameliorates loss of opiate effect in this spinal infusion model.