Chronic diazepam treatment: Effect of dose on development of tolerance and incidence of withdrawal in an animal test of anxiety

✍ Scribed by E. Sandra

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1989
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 384 KB
• Volume: 4
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0885-6222
• DOI: 10.1002/hup.470040111

✦ Synopsis

The effect of the treatment dose of diazepam was assessed on the rate of development of tolerance to diazepam's effects on rat behaviour in the elevated plus-maze test of anxiety. Tolerance developed more rapidly when treatment was with the higher dose: after 14 days when rats were given 2.5mg/kg/day, but not until 21 days when they were given 1 mg/ kg/day. When rats were tested undrugged 36 h after the last of 14 daily doses of diazepam (2.5 mg/ kg) they showed behavioural changes indicating increased anxiety. Rats tested at this time with a lower dose of diazepam (1 mg/ kg) also showed changes indicating increased anxiety compared with the control scores. This indicates that a more gradual tapering of doses would be necessary to avoid withdrawal responses.