IMPORTANCE OF STRESS IN ASSESSING THE EFFECTS OF ANORECTIC DRUGS

Chronic application of a mild, non-painful pressure to the tail (tail-pinch) induces hyperphagia and obesity in normal sated rats. There are a number of parallels between this phenomenon and some forms of stress-related overeating in humans. Tail-pinch induced eating, therefore, was used as a model for testing the effects of different types of anorectic agents on stress-related overeating. The paradigm involved first testing 22 to 28-hour food-deprived male rats on a 15-minute ad lib. eating test without tail-pinch to determine the degree of anorexia. Tail-pinch was then applied for 10 minutes, followed by a 15-minute post-pinch period of ad lib. food intake. The results showed that tail-pinch effectively counteracted the anorexia produced by amphetamine (0.5 to 2 mg/kg), methylphenidate (5.5 mgjkg), andmazindol (2 mg/kg), but not the anorexia produced by fenfluramine (2 to 7.5 mg/kg) or quipazine (3 to 9 mg/kg). These data suggest that fenfluramine-like compounds may be more effective anorectic agents in those cases of human overeating and obesity where stress or emotional factors are thought to play a major role. © 1979 Informa UK Ltd All rights reserved: reproduction in whole or part not permitted.