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The conflict procedure is an experiment often used in scientific research to quantify anxiety levels by measuring changes in punished/unpunished responses. It is often used to screen drugs for their potential to inhibit anxiety (anxiolytic potential).
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Some researchers from France have conducted an experiment on "Effects of Chronic Antidepressants in an Operant Conflict Procedure of Anxiety in the rat (1998)", "the aim of their study was to reveal possible anxiolytic like effects of antidepressants during ongoing treatment. Rats were subjected to a conflict procedure during which lever pressing for food was suppressed by a conditioned signal for punishment and contingent electric foot shocks." [1] In the preparatory phase of the experiment, researchers increased anxiety using electrical shocks on rats gradually over a several week long training process. They then administered the chosen drug and observed how it altered the responses of the rats. [1]
Other studies have used conflict procedures to test a variety of drugs, and some have reported that depressants cause an increase in punished responses, while anxiolytic drugs decrease the level of punished responding. [2] [3]
An anxiolytic is a medication, or other intervention, that inhibits anxiety. This effect is in contrast to anxiogenic agents, which increase anxiety. Together these categories of psychoactive compounds or interventions may be referred to as anxiotropic compounds or agents. Some recreational drugs such as alcohol induce anxiolysis initially; however, studies show that many of these drugs are anxiogenic. Anxiolytic medications have been used for the treatment of anxiety disorder and its related psychological and physical symptoms. Light therapy and other interventions have also been found to have an anxiolytic effect.
Azapirones are a class of drugs used as anxiolytics, antidepressants, and antipsychotics. They are commonly used as add-ons to other antidepressants, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).
Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI), also referred to as psychoendoneuroimmunology (PENI) or psychoneuroendocrinoimmunology (PNEI), is the study of the interaction between psychological processes and the nervous and immune systems of the human body. PNI takes an interdisciplinary approach, incorporating psychology, neuroscience, immunology, physiology, genetics, pharmacology, molecular biology, psychiatry, behavioral medicine, infectious diseases, endocrinology, and rheumatology.
Phenylpiracetam, is a phenylated analog of the drug piracetam. It was developed in 1983 as a medication for Soviet Cosmonauts to treat the prolonged stresses of working in space. Phenylpiracetam was created at the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Biomedical Problems in an effort led by psychopharmacologist Valentina Ivanovna Akhapkina. In Russia it is now available as a prescription drug. Research on animals has indicated that phenylpiracetam may have anti-amnesic, antidepressant, anticonvulsant, anxiolytic, and memory enhancement effects.
Brain stimulation reward (BSR) is a pleasurable phenomenon elicited via direct stimulation of specific brain regions, originally discovered by James Olds and Peter Milner. BSR can serve as a robust operant reinforcer. Targeted stimulation activates the reward system circuitry and establishes response habits similar to those established by natural rewards, such as food and sex. Experiments on BSR soon demonstrated that stimulation of the lateral hypothalamus, along with other regions of the brain associated with natural reward, was both rewarding as well as motivation-inducing. Electrical brain stimulation and intracranial drug injections produce robust reward sensation due to a relatively direct activation of the reward circuitry. This activation is considered to be more direct than rewards produced by natural stimuli, as those signals generally travel through the more indirect peripheral nerves. BSR has been found in all vertebrates tested, including humans, and it has provided a useful tool for understanding how natural rewards are processed by specific brain regions and circuits, as well the neurotransmission associated with the reward system.
Siramesine is a sigma receptor agonist, selective for the σ2 subtype. In animal studies, siramesine has been shown to produce anxiolytic and antidepressant effects. It was developed by the pharmaceutical company H Lundbeck for the treatment of anxiety, although development was discontinued after clinical trials showed a lack of efficacy in humans.
Benzoctamine is a drug that possesses sedative and anxiolytic properties. Marketed as Tacitin by Ciba-Geigy, it is different from most sedative drugs because in most clinical trials it does not produce respiratory depression, but actually stimulates the respiratory system. As a result, when compared to other sedative and anxiolytic drugs such as benzodiazepines like diazepam, it is a safer form of tranquilizing. However, when co-administered with other drugs that cause respiratory depression, like morphine, it can cause increased respiratory depression.
Antalarmin (CP-156,181) is a drug that acts as a CRH1 antagonist.
CGP-37849 is a competitive antagonist at the NMDA receptor. It is a potent, orally active anticonvulsant in animal models, and was researched for the treatment of epilepsy. It also has neuroprotective activity and shows antidepressant and anxiolytic effects.
SB-258585 is a drug which is used in scientific research. It acts as a potent, selective and orally active 5-HT6 receptor antagonist, with a Ki of 8.9nM. It is used in its 125I radiolabelled form to map the distribution of 5-HT6 receptors in the brain.
SB-399885 is a drug which is used in scientific research. It acts as a potent, selective and orally active 5-HT6 receptor antagonist, with a Ki of 9.0nM. SB-399885 and other 5-HT6 antagonists show nootropic effects in animal studies, as well as antidepressant and anxiolytic effects which are comparable to and synergistic with drugs such as imipramine and diazepam, and have been proposed as potential novel treatments for cognitive disorders such as schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease.
2-Methyl-6-(phenylethynyl)pyridine (MPEP) is a research drug which was one of the first compounds found to act as a selective antagonist for the metabotropic glutamate receptor subtype mGluR5. After being originally patented as a liquid crystal for LCDs, it was developed by the pharmaceutical company Novartis in the late 1990s. It was found to produce neuroprotective effects following acute brain injury in animal studies, although it was unclear whether these results were purely from mGluR5 blockade as it also acts as a weak NMDA antagonist, and as a positive allosteric modulator of another subtype mGlu4, and there is also evidence for a functional interaction between mGluR5 and NMDA receptors in the same populations of neurons. It was also shown to produce antidepressant and anxiolytic effects in animals, and to reduce the effects of morphine withdrawal, most likely due to direct interaction between mGluR5 and the μ-opioid receptor.
3-( ethynyl)pyridine (MTEP) is a research drug that was developed by Merck & Co. as a selective allosteric antagonist of the metabotropic glutamate receptor subtype mGluR5. Identified through structure-activity relationship studies on an older mGluR5 antagonist MPEP, MTEP has subsequently itself acted as a lead compound for newer and even more improved drugs.
Self-administration is, in its medical sense, the process of a subject administering a pharmacological substance to themself. A clinical example of this is the subcutaneous "self-injection" of insulin by a diabetic patient.
SNAP-94847 is a drug used in scientific research, which is a selective, non-peptide antagonist at the melanin concentrating hormone receptor MCH1. In animal studies it has been shown to produce both anxiolytic and antidepressant effects, and also reduces food consumption suggesting a possible anorectic effect.
Eptapirone (F-11,440) is a very potent and highly selective 5-HT1A receptor full agonist of the azapirone family. Its affinity for the 5-HT1A receptor was reported to be 4.8 nM (Ki), and its intrinsic activity approximately equal to that of serotonin.
Osemozotan (MKC-242) is a selective 5-HT1A receptor agonist with some functional selectivity, acting as a full agonist at presynaptic and a partial agonist at postsynaptic 5-HT1A receptors. 5-HT1A receptor stimulation influences the release of various neurotransmitters including serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, and acetylcholine. 5-HT1A receptors are inhibitory G protein-coupled receptor. Osemozotan has antidepressant, anxiolytic, antiobsessional, serenic, and analgesic effects in animal studies, and is used to investigate the role of 5-HT1A receptors in modulating the release of dopamine and serotonin in the brain, and their involvement in addiction to abused stimulants such as cocaine and methamphetamine.
Animal models of depression are research tools used to investigate depression and action of antidepressants as a simulation to investigate the symptomatology and pathophysiology of depressive illness or used to screen novel antidepressants.
SB-243213 is a research chemical which acts as a selective inverse agonist for the 5HT2C receptor and has anxiolytic effects. It has better than 100x selectivity for 5-HT2C over all other receptor subtypes tested, and a longer duration of action compared to older 5-HT2C antagonist ligands.
The Vogel Conflict Test (VCT) is a conflict based experimental method primarily used in pharmacology. It is used to determine anxiolytic properties of drugs. The VCT predicts drugs that can manage generalized anxiety disorders and acute anxiety states.
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