Possible involvement of GABA in the central actions of benzodiazepines

Abstract

The effects of several benzodiazepines on a variety of nervous activities known or presumed to depend on GABA are presented and compared with those of agents that deplete or increase the level of endogenous GABA: antagonism of various convulsant agents in mice, enhancement of presynaptic inhibition in the spinal cord and the cuneate nucleus of cats, decrease of the spontaneous firing rate of cerebellar Purkinje cells in cats and rats, antagonism of bicuculine-induced depression of the strio-nigral-evoked potential in the cat, potentiation of haloperidol-induced catalepsy in rats, GABA-mimetic actions on drug-induced PGO-waves in cats and on eserine-induced circling in guinea pigs. Diazepam slightly increased the GABA level in the cat spinal cord and in the total brain of mice and rats; this increase does not seem to be due to an increase of GABA synthesis. It is concluded that benzodiazepines probably enhance presynaptic inhibition at all levels of the neuraxis and that this effect requires not only the presence of GABA but is also dependent on an activity of GABA-ergic neurons. Benzodiazepines also appear to enhance postsynaptic inhibition where this is mediated by GABA. Many actions of benzodiazepines can be tentatively explained by a stimulus-bound enhancement of GABA effects.