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Drinking and cholinergic mechanisms in the abstinence after chronic barbital treatments
Author(s) -
WAHLSTRÖM G.
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.743
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1467-9450
pISSN - 0036-5564
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9450.1982.tb00454.x
Subject(s) - barbital , hexobarbital , atropine , physostigmine , chemistry , tail vein , physical dependence , anesthesia , cholinergic , medicine , endocrinology , morphine , chromatography , biology , biochemistry , microbiology and biotechnology , in vivo , enzyme , microsome
Male rats were treated with barbital in the drinking water for 32–33 weeks (intake 195 mg/kg/day). This treatment ended on day 0. On days 23–29, 1.5 mg/kg/day of atropine was given. The changes induced by the treatments alone or combined were recorded either as a sensitivity to hexobarbital in the brain determined with a threshold method or as water intake calculated on data obtained with weekly intervals. The hexobarbital threshold test indicated that the barbital treatment had induced a tolerance which at the time of the atropine treatment was variable. In the rats also given the atropine treatment this tolerance was after a delay of approx. 2 weeks more marked and less variable. The water intake in only barbital treated rats showed, compared with untreated controls, an increase which had a maximum on days 28–35. During the atropine treatment given on days 23–29 there was in the previously barbital treated rats no certain effect, but immediately after the end of treatment there was an approx. 25 per cent increase in water intake above that found in only barbital treated rats. No return to control levels was seen within a 14 weeks observation period. This increase resembled supersensitivity but did not correspond over time with the changes seen in hexobarbital sensitivity.