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Reduction of anxiety in genetically timid dogs

Drug-induced schizokinesis and autokinesis

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Conditional reflex : a Pavlovian journal of research & therapy Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In behavior studies of genetically timid and normal dogs it was possible to focus on nervous non-performing animals in a search for agents which might attenuate the overriding anxiety which causes these animals to become rigid, aversive-avoiding or bizarre in the presence of humans. Of the drugs tested, chlordiazepoxide (Librium, Roche), 75 to 200 mg per dog per day, was most effective in alleviating the anxious condition. Sometimes the drug had the effect of getting the animal over a “threshold” so that he continued to perform (bar-pressing) indefinitely after once started through the aid of chlordiazepoxide. This is considered an example of both schizokinesis and autokinesis which Gantt first described and associated with drug action utilizing conditional response techniques.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. North Little Rock Division, Veterans Administration Hospital, USA

    Oddist D. Murphree

  2. Department of Psychiatry, University of Arkansas Medical Center, Little Rock, Arkansas

    Oddist D. Murphree

Authors
  1. Oddist D. Murphree
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Additional information

Supported in part by Wallace Pharmaceuticals, Cranbury, New Jersey, and The Upjohn Company, Kalamazoo, Michigan.

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Murphree, O.D. Reduction of anxiety in genetically timid dogs. Conditional Reflex 7, 170–176 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03000216

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03000216

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