ARE PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF BETA-ADRENERGIC STIMULANTS CENTRAL OR PERIPHERAL

In animal experiments and in man salbutamol has the profile of an antidepressant agent. To determine if one of the experimental animal [mouse] models used reflected a central effect of the drug, the magnitude of the modifications obtained on 4 models after i.p. or intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.) administration of salbutamol were compared. The effects of salbutamol were considered in 3 models: the antagonism of the reserpine-induced hypothermia, of the apomorphine-induced hypothermia and the decrease in locomotor activity; the effects of the drug administered i.p. or i.c.v. were all the same in these systems. The antagonism of oxotremorine-induced hypothermia was stronger after i.c.v. administration of salbutamol or of isoproterenol; similarly, the potentiation of this hypothermia was stronger after i.c.v. administration of alprenolol than after i.p. administration. This test could become a useful model of a possibly central .beta.-adrenergic effect.