Effects of chronic diazepam treatment and withdrawal on avoidance behavior

The present study was designed to evaluate the effects of chronic diazepam (DZ) treatment with low doses and diazepam withdrawal on the two-way shuttl e-box avoidance performance in rats. After 24 rats were randomly assigned i nto three groups (I mg/kg DZ, 2 mg/kg DZ and control groups), all animals w ere trained to avoid from an electrical foot shock (0.8 mA) delivered throu gh the grid floor by crossing to the other compartment of the box. Followin g the avoidance training, the first group received I mg/kg DZ (DZ1), the se cond group received 2 mg/kg DZ (DZ2), and the control group (CONT group) wa s given a vehicle chronically for 28 days. All rats were tested on the 1(st ), 7(th), 14(th), 21th and 28(th) days of chronic treatment. Following chro nic DZ treatment, two weeks of withdrawal from chronic DZ treatment started and all animals were tested on the 1(st), 4(th), 7(th), and 14(th) days of withdrawal. Acute administration of DZ did not produce any impairment on a voidance performance. However all groups showed a significant increment in avoidance performance for the first day of drug administration. Neither chr onic administration of DZ nor withdrawal from it had a significant effect o n avoidance performance. These findings were discussed by faking potential confounding variables, such as subject loss throughout the experiment, ceil ing effect of training, anxiogenic effect of beginning, and discontinuation of injection, into consideration.