title: Estrogen and haloperidol-induced versus handling-related catalepsy in male rats.
abstract: A single injection of 17 beta-estradiol valerate produces, 6-7 days later, potentiation of neuroleptic catalepsy. Multiple behavioral measures demonstrate that this effect occurs with an acute dose of haloperidol of 0.25 mg/kg IP. An even lower dose of haloperidol (0.10 mg/kg), which fails to make control rats cataleptic, produces catalepsy in estrogen-treated animals. Thus, estrogen lowers the threshold of haloperidol-induced catalepsy. Repeated testing alone induces cataleptic reactions in control rats. Estrogen suppresses such handling-related catalepsy in animals that subsequently show potentiation of catalepsy at a dose of haloperidol (0.10 mg/kg), which has virtually no effect on control rats. Thus, in these behavioral paradigms, estrogen by itself does not produce cataleptic effects, and estrogen-induced potentiation of haloperidol catalepsy is not merely additive to an antecedent, neuroleptic-like effect of this hormone. We interpret our results in terms of (1) the relationship of cataleptic reactions in normal rats to drug-induced cataleptic states; (2) the possible relevance of our behavioral results to basal ganglia disorders; and (3) the relationship of neuroleptic catalepsy to striatal DA receptors and their modulation by estrogen.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D004357:Drug Synergism; D004924:Escape Reaction / Q000187:drug effects; D004958:Estradiol / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006220:Haloperidol / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006234:Handling, Psychological; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000187:drug effects*; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains
chemical_list: D004958:Estradiol; D006220:Haloperidol