Abstract
Male Sprague-Dawley rats were trained to discriminate 3.2 mg/kg yohimbine HCl from saline in a two-lever operant procedure. Generalization tests indicated that piperoxane, another α2-adrenergic blocker with anxiogenic properties in humans, produces yohimbine-like discriminatieffects. In contrast to yohimbine and piperoxane, many other agents were discriminated as vehicle, including corynanthine, raubasine, phentolamine, prazosin, WB-4101, mianserin, tolazoline, and mezilamine. Diazepam caused a dose-related antagonism of yohimbine's stimulus properties. A partial antagonism of yohimbine cueing was also obtained with meprobamate, phenobarbital, chlordiazepoxide, and clonazepam. These results suggest that yohimbine discrimination in rats may be a useful model for detecting agents with anxiolytic activity.
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Browne, R.G. Anxiolytics antagonize yohimbine's discriminative stimulus properties. Psychopharmacology 74, 245–249 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00427103
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00427103