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Screening hallucinogenic drugs: Systematic study of three behavioral tests

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Abstract

The effects of several hallucinogenic and non-hallucinogenic drugs have been studied on three behavioral tests proposed as useful indexes of hallucinogenic activity: “head-twitching” in mice, defecation in an open-field, and suppression of responding on a differential reinforcement of low rates (DRL) schedule of reinforcement. According to the original propositions, after administration of hallucinogenic agents the frequency of head-twitches would increase in mice, the defecation of rats in an open field would decrease without consistent change in ambulation, rearing and grooming, and the responding of rats on a DRL schedule would yield a typical cumulative record pattern. It was found that the head-twitch test was sensitive to mescaline and LSD-25, but not to δ9-THC or to myristicin and elemicin. Besides, the data on interobserver agreement suggested there is a high degree of subjectivity involved in assessing this response. In the open-field test, non-hallucinogenic drugs such as chlorpromazine and apomorphine fell into the hallucinogenic pattern proposed. In addition, the post-injection interval selected seemed to critically affect defecation scores. The DRL “hallucinogenic” pattern occurred nonspecifically after administration of hallucinogenic and non-hallucinogenic drugs. It was concluded that the three tests have limited value for screening purposes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Psicobiologia, Escola Paulista de Medicina, SÃo Paulo, Brasil

    M. Teresa A. Silva & Helena M. Calil

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  1. M. Teresa A. Silva
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  2. Helena M. Calil
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This work was partially supported by Conselho Nacional de Pesquisas.

With a fellowship from FundaÇÃo de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de SÃo Paulo (FAPESP). The authors are grateful to Teluyo Fukasawa for help in conducting the experiments and to Sidney dos Santos for his technical assistance.

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Silva, M.T.A., Calil, H.M. Screening hallucinogenic drugs: Systematic study of three behavioral tests. Psychopharmacologia 42, 163–171 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00429548

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00429548

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