Anxiety – Modified Geller-Seifter Conflict Test
This test serves as a putative animal model of anxiety. Rats learn to press a lever for a food reinforcement. Aversive stimuli (such as mild foot shock) suppress the lever-pressing responding in rodents. Anxiolytic drugs increase the number of shocks accepted in the punished condition without affecting unpunished responding. This task has the advantage of selectivity for anxiolytic drugs showing no effects of other classes of psychotropic drugs.
Administration of the benzodiazepine diazepam significantly increases punishing responding but has no effects on unpunished responding. These data indicate that the anxiolytic properties of diazepam in this test are observed at the doses that have no sedative side-effects. *p<0.05- significant difference compared to vehicle.
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Administration of the chlordiazepoxide significantly increased punishing responding but also significantly decreased unpunished responding at the highest dose tested. These data indicate that the anxiolytic properties of chlordiazepoxide at 10 mg/kg were associated with locomotor or sedative side-effects. *p<0.05- significant difference compared to vehicle.
