Analysis of the role of drug-predictive environmental stimuli in tolerance to the hypothermic effects of the benzodiazepine midazolam

Abstract

The role of classical conditioning processes in the development of tolerance to the hypothermic effects of the short-acting benzodiazepine midazolam was studied in three experiments in rats. The experiments were all designed so that one set of environmental stimuli reliably predicted drug treatments whilst another set of stimuli predicted control (vehicle) treatment. According to the classical conditioning account of tolerance, the degree of tolerance observed should be greater in the presence of drug-predictive stimuli than in their absence, i.e. tolerance should show environmental (context) specificity. A preliminary study was conducted to determine the dose- and time-effect curves for midazolam-induced hypothermia. The results of this study provided essential background data for the design of all the subsequent tolerance studies. In the first tolerance study, it was found that virtually complete tolerance developed to the hypothermic effects of 4 mg/kg (IP) midazolam given on alternate days. However, the observed tolerance was clearly not environmentally specific. Since there is evidence that conditioned tolerance to some drug effects develops most readily if drugs are given at low doses with long inter-injection intervals, a second study was conducted with a lower (1.6 mg/kg IP) dose of midazolam, which was given every 5th day. Despite these procedural changes, the second study indicated that the observed tolerance again did not show context specificity, even though tolerance developed rapidly with the lower dose of a short acting drug which was given infrequently.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)