Amphetamine toxicity in isolated and aggregated mice

Summary

The phenomenon of increased amphetamine toxicity in aggregated mice was studied by placing one mouse treated with amphetamine among either 9 untreated (1 A+9 U) or 9 sedated (1 A+9 S) mice. Mortalities were recorded at the fifth and twentieth hour following intraperitoneal injection of dl-amphetamine in doses ranging from 15 to 125 mg/kg. The mortality in these two groups were compared with the mortality in two other groups where one amphetaminetreated mouse was isolated (1 A) and where 10 amphetamine-treated mice were grouped together (10 A). The highest mortality occurred when all the mice in the aggregate received amphetamine (10 A), whereas, the lowest mortality occurred in mice (1 A) isolated after amphetamine injection. The mortality curves for mice placed among untreated (A + 9 U) or sedated (1 A + 9 S) mice were similar and lay in between those for the isolated (1 A) and aggregated (10 A) mice. A biphasic pattern was noted in the dose-mortality curves for the three different aggregated groups.