Mescaline produces pathological aggression in rats regardless of age or strain
Robert J. Sbordone, Joseph A. Wingard, Mark L. Elliott, John P. Jervey
Pharmacology, Biochemistry, and Behavior May 1, 1978 DOI: 10.1016/0091-3057(78)90385-4 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Experimental study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Sprague-Dawley, Wistar, and Long-Evans rats aged 40-50, 90-110, and 180-200 days |
| Intervention | Mescaline hydrochloride |
| Topics | Mescaline |
| Keywords | Aggression Pathological Biting Physiology |
| Citations | 12 |
| Key findings | Mescaline administration significantly increased fights, biting, and pathological aggression in rats across all ages and strains. |
Abstract
Several measures of aggressive behavior were investigated in three ages (40-50, 90-110, and 180-200 days old) and in three strains (Sprague-Dawley, Wistar, and Long-Evans) of rats before and following the administration of mescaline hydrochloride in a shock-elicited aggression situation. The measures included the number of fights, duration of fighting, latency of fighting, number of bites inflicted, and a composite index of pathological aggression. During predrug baseline testing it was found that older rats, regardess of strain, engaged in more frequent fights that were longer in duration and more intense than younger animals. When the animals were tested with mescaline, they engaged in significantly more fights, biting, and pathological aggression than during baseline testing regardless of their age of strain. These results suggest that mescaline-induced pathological aggression in rats is a robust phenomenon.
Comparable studies
Other preclinical and animal studies on mescaline, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Correlation between the potency of hallucinogens in the mouse head-twitch response assay and their behavioral and subjective effects in other species. C57BL/6J mice | 2020 | Experimental study with dose-response experiments | |
| Brain mechanisms of hallucinogens and entactogens Humans and rats | 2001 | Review | |
| Effects of hallucinogenic agents mescaline and phencyclidine on zebrafish behavior and physiology Zebrafish (Danio rerio) | 2012 | Experimental study | |
| Lysergic Acid Diethylamide- and Mescaline-Induced Attenuation of the Effect of Punishment in the Rat Rats | 1976 | Experimental study | |
| Dihydrobenzofuran Analogues of Hallucinogens. 3. Models of 4-Substituted (2,5-Dimethoxyphenyl)alkylamine Derivatives with Rigidified Methoxy Groups Rats (trained to discriminate saline from LSD tartrate) and rat cortical and... | 1996 | In vivo drug discrimination assay and in vitro radioligand binding assay |
Citations in the library
Cited by 6
- Effects of hallucinogenic agents mescaline and phencyclidine on zebrafish behavior and physiology Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry January 10, 2012
- Mescaline effects on rat behavior and its time profile in serum and brain tissue after a single subcutaneous dose Psychopharmacology October 6, 2007
- Severe aggression in rats induced by mescaline but not other hallucinogens Psychopharmacology December 1, 1979
- Mescaline-induced behavioral alterations are mediated by 5-HT2A and 5-HT2C receptors in rats. Pharmacology, Biochemistry, and Behavior December 1, 2024
- Behavioral pharmacology of mescaline - the role of serotonin 5-HT2A, 5-HT2B, 5-HT2C and 5-HT1A receptors bioRxiv Preprint Server August 28, 2024
and 1 more in the library