Effects of the phenethylamine derivatives, BL-3912, fenfluramine, and Sch-12679, in rats trained with LSD as a discriminative stimulus

Abstract

Six rats were trained to discriminate the effects of LSD (100 μg/kg) and saline in a two-lever choice task. They were then tested with each of three phenethylamine derivatives, BL-3912 (2,5-dimethoxy-4-methyl-α-ethyl-phenethylamine), fenfluramine (N-ethyl-α-methyl-m-(trifluoro-methyl)phenethylamine), and Sch-12679 (N-methyl-1-phenyl-7,8-dimethoxy-2,3,4,5-tetra-hydro-3-benzazepine maleate). Fenfluramine and Sch-12679 yielded intermediate results, i.e., responding was not fully appropriate for either training condition while BL-3912 substituted completely for LSD. The LSD-like effects of each of the drugs were antagonized by pretreatment with BC-105, a serotonergic antagonist known to block the stimulus effects of indole and phenethylamine hallucinogens. The present data together with consideration of the known clinical effects of BL-3912, fenfluramine, and Sch-12679 are consistent with the following conclusions: (1) a variety of drugs may substitute in whole or in part for LSD in LSD-trained rats, and (2) even complete substitution of a drug for LSD in the rat is not necessarily associated with the production by that drug of hallucinations in man.