Counterconditioning and extinction of fear fail to transfer from amobarbital to nondrug state.

Abstract

Three dosages of amobarbital sodium all aided albino rats to resume a previously punished lever-pressing response. This finding was obtained in a test of counterconditioning and extinction of fear-motivated avoidance, with 108 animals divided into groups which were given placebo or one of three dosages of amobarbital (10, 20, or 30 mg/kg). In a subsequent test for transfer of counterconditioning and extinction to the nondrug state, with placebo given to all the animals, the superior performance under the drug failed to transfer to the nondrug state. On the contrary, there was the suggestion of an inverse relationship between performance in the test for transfer to the nondrug state and drug dosage during the prior test for effect of amobarbital. This experiment demonstrates that the stimulus-change decrement produced by a shift from the drugged to the nondrug state may prevent the therapeutic retraining under the drug from transferring to the nondrug state.