Benzodiazepines: Drug discrimination and physiological dependence

The benzodiazepines are among the most widely used of all prescribed drugs. Concern about abuse of these drugs has prompted the development of preclinical methods for assessing various pharmacological effects of diazepam-like drugs which are relevant to their abuse and dependence liability. This abstract describes results from a series of ongoing experiments to assess discriminative stimulus effects and physiological dependence-producing properties of benzodiazepines.