Differential interactions between chlordiazepoxide, pentobarbital and benzodiazepine antagonists Ro 15-1788 and CGS 8216 in a drug discrimination procedure.

Rats were trained to discriminate either chlordiazepoxide (CDP, 4 mg/kg, IP, N = 8) or pentobarbital (PB, 10 mg/kg, IP, N = 8) from saline in a two-lever food-reinforced procedure. CDP and PB dose-dependently substituted for each other (greater than or equal to 90% drug lever responses); indicating that their discriminative stimulus properties were closely similar. However, discriminative stimulus control induced by CDP and PB differentially was affected by the proposed benzodiazepine (BDZ) antagonists Ro 15-1788 (0.08-20 mg/kg, IP) and CGS 8216 (2.5-20 mg/kg, IP) in each experimental group; suggesting that the discriminative stimulus properties of CDP and PB are mediated by different mechanisms of action. When administered alone, Ro 15-1788 (5 and 20 mg/kg), but not CGS 8216, induced CDP like discriminative effects, suggesting that Ro 15-1788 may have partial (BDZ like) agonist properties, not shown by CGS 8216. Additional evidence for a behavioral difference between Ro 15-1788 and CGS 8216 is suggested by differential effects of both compounds on response rate. The results may reflect differential interactions of the compounds with the BDZ receptor-GABA receptor-Cl- ionophore complex.