title: The lack of behavioral effects of fenbendazole: a medication for pinworm infection.
abstract: Pinworm infection in rodent laboratories is common and often treated with fenbendazole, which is effective and has a low toxicity level. However, very little is known about the behavioral effects of the drug. The purpose of this study was to determine the behavioral effects of fenbendazole on rats tested by using various conditioning and timing procedures. These behavioral effects were examined both between animals (i.e., control versus medicated treatments) and within animals (baseline-treatment-baseline design). Fenbendazole reduced the detection of pinworm eggs, and it had no significant behavioral effects across multiple levels of analysis (e.g., from overall response rates to response patterns to interresponse intervals). All behavioral differences (e.g., discrimination ratios) were a result of task variables. These results suggest that behavioral studies are unlikely to be influenced by fenbendazole treatment given before or during a study.
authors.affiliation: Converse College, Department of Psychology, Spartanburg, South Carolina 29302, USA.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Keen
authors.forename: Mika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Macinnis
authors.forename: Paulo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Guilhardi
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Chamberland
authors.forename: Russell
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Church
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D003213:Conditioning, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D017229:Enterobiasis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000662:veterinary*; D004757:Enterobius; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000187:drug effects*; D005273:Fenbendazole / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012376:Rodent Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000469:parasitology*; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D005273:Fenbendazole