Anxiolytic effects of buspirone and gepirone in the fear-potentiated startle paradigm
- 1 January 1988
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Nature in Psychopharmacology
- Vol. 94 (1), 8-13
- https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00735872
Abstract
Fear potentiation of the acoustic startle reflex was produced by eliciting startle responses in the presence of a light that had been previously paired with a shock. Buspirone (0.6–5.0 mg/kg) and gepirone (1.25–10.0 mg/kg), but not their common metabolite, 1-PP (0.5–40 mg/kg), produced a dose-dependent reduction of fear-potentiated startle. These doses of buspirone and gepirone slightly increased baseline startle levels. Reduction of fear-potentiated startle appears to involve supraspinal sites of action, since intraventricular but not intrathecal administration of buspirone (200 μ;g) reduced fear-enhanced startle. Both buspirone and gepirone were highly efficacious in this model compared to other animal tests that are used to study anxiolytic compounds.This publication has 37 references indexed in Scilit:
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