Abstract
Alcoholism is a major public health problem in the United States as well as in most of the Western world (Rubin and Lieber, 1971). Moreover, maternal alcoholism may cause developmental and physical defects in babies (Ulleland, 1970, Smith et al., 1973). The acute administration of ethanol causes central nervous system depression and lowers the body temperature of mice (Freund, 1973). It was reported that DH-524 is more selective than the analeptics in antagonizing the effects of some central nervous system depressants (Reitz and others, 1973). The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of DH-524 (2(3,4-dichlorophenoxy)-methyl-2-imidazoline), bemegride, doxapram and d-amphetamine on the narcotic and hypothermic effect of ethanol in mice.
Materials and Methods. Male Swiss-Origin-ICR mice derived from Harlan Industries Cumberland, Indiana (of approximately the same age and weight) were used in all studies. Sleeping times are defined as the time from the intraperitoneal injection of alcohol until the animal was able to right itself twice. All experiments were done in a quiet room at constant temperature (25.0 ± 1.0°) between 8.0 am and 2.0 pm.
Antagonism of ethanol narcosis. Mice were divided into groups at random. Each group was injected intravenously either with the test drugs or with saline and placed into a plastic observation cages. Five minutes later each mouse was injected with 4.4 ml/kg ip of ethanol (4.4 ml of 100% ethanol diluted with water to make 10 ml). The mice were then placed on their backs as soon as narcosis developed and the time of the first and second righting was recorded. The mean sleep time of drug pretreated groups was compared to that of saline pretreated groups. Results were analyzed by the Student's t test.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.