Chlorpromazine, methamphetamine, serotonin, reserpine, and effects on cat spinal cord.

Abstract

There is an increasing interest in drugs which have a central nervous system action, but the pharmacology of these agents appears to be more complex than some of the published reports indicate. Data from a single screening technique have often been interpreted as indicating a specific action on a certain level of the nervous system, apparently disregarding the fact that there are many physiological variables operating simultaneously and possible effects at other levels of nervous system organization. In the following studies the effects on the monosynaptic and multisynaptic reflex responses of five currently important psychiatric compounds were investigated. These spinal cord reflex systems are comparatively simple ones and thereby allow interpretations of results based on previously known anatomical and physiological data. The studies were designed to yield qualitative data about drug action on a synaptic level and to demonstrate the usefulness of a new technique to analyze further the site