| Abstract: | The anxiolytic activity of serotonin agonists (buspirone, ipsapirone, campirone, caplapirone, 1-pyrimidinyl-piperazine) determined in rats on 3 experimental models of anxiety closely correlates with the degree of inhibition of impulse release of 3H-serotonin by electrically stimulated slices of the midbrain raphe dorsal nucleus (r = +0.85) but not the slices of the cerebral hemispheric cortex (r = +0.60) of the rats. The anxiolytic activity of neuroleptics (chlorpromazine, trifluorperazine), antidepressant (amitriptyline, imipramine) and beta-carbolines (harmane, 3.4-tetramethyleneharmane) corresponds well (r = +0.94) to the ability of the drugs to potentiate the hyperpolarizing effects of serotonin in the rat sensory ganglion. |
