Development of tolerance to the antinociceptive effect of mescaline intraventricularly administered to rabbits

The thymoleptics imipramine, desipramine, protriptyline, nortriptyline, chlorimipramine and amitriptyline all potentiate gnawing of mice induced by Dopa following the decarboxylase inhibitor Ro 4-4602.The gnawing behaviour is probably associated with the increase in brain dopamine resulting from this treatment. Thymoleptics also affect other types of behaviour associated with brain dopamine. The relevance of these effects to clinical antidepressive effect and their possible utilization for preclinical screening tests is discussed.