PMID: 6106486Jan 1, 1980Paper

Animal models of anxiety and benzodiazepine actions

Arzneimittel-Forschung
S D Iversen

Abstract

If rats trained to press a lever for food, then receive a shock to the feet following every response, their behavioural output is severely depressed. This procedure is termed immediately punishment and it was used by Geller and Seifter in the task devised to demonstrate the anxiolytic effect of benzodiazepines. These drugs and a number of others with anxiolytic activity (e. g. barbiturates, ethanol) reverse the suppression induced by the presentation of a highly aversive stimulus, like electric shock. The Geller-Seifter procedure has figured prominently in behavioural studies of benzodiazepines and in the efforts to determine the neuropharmacological basis of their anxiolytic action. Experiments involving the manipulation of brain noradrenaline (NA) and 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) levels with drugs or lesions are discussed. The Geller-Seifter procedure is, however, a time consuming and difficult behavioural baseline to work with. It is important, therefore, to devise equally specific but simpler animal models of anxiety. Electric shock, as the anxiety-inducing event has dominated the tasks devised by behavioural psychologists. It is essential to search for more biologically relevant events with which to control the level of anxi...Continue Reading

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