Influence of maternal chlorpromazine on discrimination learning in rat offspring.

Light-dark discrimination learning in rat offspring born to mothers treated with chlorpromazine was studied. Daily doses of 16 mg/kg, administered from gestation day 17 to day 21, had no effect on the acquisition of lever press responses and on the original discrimination learning. However, acquisition of the reversal learning was retarded. The same dose administered during the nursing period did not produce such behavioral changes. The results indicate that high doses of chlorpromazine administered during the peripartum period might cause learning impairment in the offspring.