Psychophysiological and Neurochemical Analysis of Benzodiazepine Tranquilizers’ Activating Effect

Abstract

It is only anxiolytic drugs, as distinct from other groups of sedatives, which heighten behavioral response in animals over a wide dose range. The increased motor and exploratory activity in rats and mice in an open field facilitate operative behavior, increase the incidence of behavioral response under negative reinforcement and potentiate self-stimulation. The potentiating and anxiolytic effects are to some extent linked. If fear is eliminated from passive behavior, this leads to disinhibition and consequently to potentiating certain behavior. The potentiating effect, however, is bound up with the animal’s emotional and behavioral response patterns. In a number of cases aggression actually increased as a result of tranquilizer action (see Lader, 1980).