title: Parachlorophenylalanine potentiates facilitatory effects of mescaline on shuttlebox escape/avoidance in rats.
abstract: Acute parachlorophenylalanine (pCPA) pretreatment (150 mg/kg, i.p., 24 h beforehand) potentiated facilitatory effects of mescaline (39.6 mg/kg i.p.) on shuttlebox escape/avoidance in hooded rats, tested in two different situations: 1. during aquisition of avoidance behavior (Experiment 1); and 2. in stable pretrained poor avoiders (Experiment 2). pCPA alone did not influence avoidance behavior in either situation. Mescaline, with pCPA pretreatment, may be associated with long-term behavioral effects; all rats treated with this combination were later found to be poor avoiders, unable to achieve a stable baseline of good avoidance. pCPA significantly depleted brain norepinephrine and dopamine, as well as serotonin, measured after testing in the second situation.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000187:drug effects*; D001923:Brain Chemistry / Q000187:drug effects; D004298:Dopamine / Q000032:analysis; D004357:Drug Synergism; D004924:Escape Reaction / Q000187:drug effects*; D010134:Fenclonine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008297:Male; D008635:Mescaline / Q000494:pharmacology*; D009638:Norepinephrine / Q000032:analysis; D051381:Rats; D012701:Serotonin / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D012701:Serotonin; D010134:Fenclonine; D008635:Mescaline; D004298:Dopamine; D009638:Norepinephrine