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Screening hallucinogenic drugs

II. Systematic study of two behavioral tests

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The effects of hallucinogenic and nonhallucinogenic drugs were studied on two behavioral tests: (1) discriminated Sidman avoidance, using modified Bovet-Gatti profiles, which have been proposed as specific in detecting hallucinogenic activity and (2) a drug discrimination experiment. By the first method, the ‘hallucinogenic profile” was obtained with both hallucinogenic and nonhallucinogenic drugs and, at least as used here, was not a suitable screening method. In the drug discrimination experiment, data from the present study along with other available evidence suggest the potential value of this method for drug screening procedures.

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This work is part of a Thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the degree of Doctor of Sciences at Escola Paulista de Medicina

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Cail, H.M. Screening hallucinogenic drugs. Psychopharmacology 56, 87–92 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00571414

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00571414

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