TY - JOUR
T1 - Discriminative stimulus effects of pentobarbital in pigeons
AU - Herling, Seymore
AU - Valentino, Rita J.
AU - Winger, Gail D.
PY - 1980/11
Y1 - 1980/11
N2 - Pigeons were trained to discriminate the IM injection of pentobarbital (5 or 10 mg/kg) from saline in a task in which 20 consecutive pecks on one of two response keys produced access to mixed grain. Pentobarbital (1.0-17.8 mg/kg) produced a dose-related increase in the percentage of the total session responses that occurred on the pentobarbital-appropriate key. The concomitant administration of bemegride (5.6-17.8 mg/kg) antagonized the discriminative control of behavior exerted by the training dose of pentobarbital. Benzodiazepines, diazepam (1.0 mg/kg) and clobazam (3.2 mg/kg), and barbiturates, methohexital (10 mg/kg), phenobarbital (56 mg/kg), and barbital (56 mg/kg), produced responding on the pentobarbital-appropriate key similar to that produced by pentobarbital. In contrast, narcotics such as morphine, ethylketazocine, cyclazocine, and SKF-10,047, at doses up to and including those that markedly suppressed response rates, produced responding predominantly on the saline-appropriate key. Similarly, the anticonvulsants, valproate, phenytoin, and ethosuximide occasioned only saline-appropriate behavior, indicating that not all anticonvulsants share discriminative stimulus effects with pentobarbital. Muscimol, a direct GABA agonist, and baclofen, a structural analogue of GABA, also failed to produce pentobarbital-appropriate responding. Ketamine, dextrorphan, and ethanol (0.3-3.2 g/kg, orally) produced intermediate levels of pentobarbital-appropriate responding, suggesting that the discriminative effects of these drugs may be somewhat like those of pentobarbital.
AB - Pigeons were trained to discriminate the IM injection of pentobarbital (5 or 10 mg/kg) from saline in a task in which 20 consecutive pecks on one of two response keys produced access to mixed grain. Pentobarbital (1.0-17.8 mg/kg) produced a dose-related increase in the percentage of the total session responses that occurred on the pentobarbital-appropriate key. The concomitant administration of bemegride (5.6-17.8 mg/kg) antagonized the discriminative control of behavior exerted by the training dose of pentobarbital. Benzodiazepines, diazepam (1.0 mg/kg) and clobazam (3.2 mg/kg), and barbiturates, methohexital (10 mg/kg), phenobarbital (56 mg/kg), and barbital (56 mg/kg), produced responding on the pentobarbital-appropriate key similar to that produced by pentobarbital. In contrast, narcotics such as morphine, ethylketazocine, cyclazocine, and SKF-10,047, at doses up to and including those that markedly suppressed response rates, produced responding predominantly on the saline-appropriate key. Similarly, the anticonvulsants, valproate, phenytoin, and ethosuximide occasioned only saline-appropriate behavior, indicating that not all anticonvulsants share discriminative stimulus effects with pentobarbital. Muscimol, a direct GABA agonist, and baclofen, a structural analogue of GABA, also failed to produce pentobarbital-appropriate responding. Ketamine, dextrorphan, and ethanol (0.3-3.2 g/kg, orally) produced intermediate levels of pentobarbital-appropriate responding, suggesting that the discriminative effects of these drugs may be somewhat like those of pentobarbital.
KW - Drug discrimination
KW - Pentobarbital
KW - Pigeons
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0019134106&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1007/BF00433247
DO - 10.1007/BF00433247
M3 - Article
C2 - 6779321
AN - SCOPUS:0019134106
VL - 71
SP - 21
EP - 28
JO - Psychopharmacology
JF - Psychopharmacology
SN - 0033-3158
IS - 1
ER -