Benzodiazepine dependence studies in animals: An overview

Abstract

A selective review of benzodiazepine dependence studies in animals is presented, emphasizing areas of drug self-injection, drug discrimination, and physiological dependence. Benzodiazepines as a class, as well as long-acting barbiturates, appear to maintain drug self-injection behavior less well than ultrashort-acting barbiturates. The duration of action as well as the rapidity of onset of these drugs may be important determinants of their reinforcing efficacy. Drug discrimination procedures may allow evaluation of the relative rapidity at onset and duration of action of these drugs to evaluate this and related hypotheses.