PECULIARITIES OF PHENAZEPAM ANTICONFLICT ACTION IN RATS CLASSIFIED BYMEANS OF FORCED SWIMMING TECHNIQUE

A method of classification of outbred albino rats by means of forced s wimming in a tank filled with water and equipped by freely turning whe els was developed. Using this technique a population of albino rats ca n be divided into three groups: highly active (HA), low active (LA) an imals, and rats with intermediate activity. HA animals exhibit stable behaviour in forced swimming and conflict situation paradigms. They ar e also more sensitive to a benzodiazepine anxiolytic phenazepam in con flict situation test. At the same time, LA rats decrease their activit y and are less sensitive to phenazepam. Both groups (LA and HA) are no t homogeneous: each of them includes animals demonstrating quite anoth er type of behaviour compared with a majority of rats.