The inability of CCK to block (or CCK antagonists to substitute for) the stimulus effects of chlordiazepoxide.

To further examine the relationship between cholecystokinin (CCK) and GABA, the present study assessed the ability of the CCK-A antagonist devazepide and the CCK-B antagonist L-365,260 to substitute for the stimulus effects of chlordiazepoxide (CDP), as well as the ability of CCK-8s to block these effects, in female Long-Evans rats within the conditioned taste aversion baseline of drug discrimination learning. Both devazepide and L-365,260 failed to substitute for the discriminative stimulus properties of CDP, and CCK-8s failed to block its stimulus effects. The benzodiazepine diazepam did substitute for, and the benzodiazepine antagonist flumazenil did block, the stimulus effects of CDP. This suggests that the lack of substitution for, or antagonism of, CDP by the CCK antagonists and CCK-8s, respectively, was not due to the inability of the present design to assess such effects. Possible bases for the current findings, e.g., necessity of an anxiogenic baseline, drug and receptor specificity, as well as the dose-response nature of the interaction, were discussed. Given that a relationship between CCK and GABA has been reported in other designs, the present results suggest that such a relationship may be preparation specific.