Biomaterial Database

Drug discrimination in behavioral toxicology. 1987

F C Colpaert

Department of Psychopharmacology, Janssen Pharmaceutica, Beerse, Belgium.

Drug discrimination is a method of behavioral pharmacology which establishes drugs as discriminative stimuli to behavioral responses. The drug discrimination paradigm typically involves the training of animals to discriminate the administration of a given chemical from that of its vehicle. Prominent features of the paradigm are its exquisite pharmacological specificity, reliability and sensitivity. Toxicology can utilize drug discrimination in at least two ways. Firstly, discriminative effects often signal the presence of chemicals to exposed subjects. Secondly, drug discrimination offers a standardized and well controlled preparation in which measurements are available that are sensitive to possible defects in numerous neurobiological and behavioral functions. Drug discrimination is thus sensitive to defects in neurotransmitter systems, drug-receptor interactions, learning, memory, arousal, motor control, drives, etc. Drug discrimination can be viewed as an encompassing and sensitive technique for the advanced toxicological evaluation of drugs and environmental chemicals.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D004192	Discrimination, Psychological	Differential response to different stimuli.	Discrimination, Psychology,Psychological Discrimination
D004353	Drug Evaluation, Preclinical	Preclinical testing of drugs in experimental animals or in vitro for their biological and toxic effects and potential clinical applications.	Drug Screening,Evaluation Studies, Drug, Pre-Clinical,Drug Evaluation Studies, Preclinical,Drug Evaluations, Preclinical,Evaluation Studies, Drug, Preclinical,Evaluation, Preclinical Drug,Evaluations, Preclinical Drug,Medicinal Plants Testing, Preclinical,Preclinical Drug Evaluation,Preclinical Drug Evaluations,Drug Screenings,Screening, Drug,Screenings, Drug
D000818	Animals	Unicellular or multicellular, heterotrophic organisms, that have sensation and the power of voluntary movement. Under the older five kingdom paradigm, Animalia was one of the kingdoms. Under the modern three domain model, Animalia represents one of the many groups in the domain EUKARYOTA.	Animal,Metazoa,Animalia
D001522	Behavior, Animal	The observable response an animal makes to any situation.	Autotomy Animal,Animal Behavior,Animal Behaviors
D014116	Toxicology	The science concerned with the detection, chemical composition, and biological action of toxic substances or poisons and the treatment and prevention of toxic manifestations.	Toxinology,Evidence Based Toxicology,Evidence-Based Toxicology,Based Toxicologies, Evidence,Based Toxicology, Evidence,Evidence Based Toxicologies,Evidence-Based Toxicologies,Toxicologies, Evidence Based,Toxicologies, Evidence-Based,Toxicology, Evidence Based,Toxicology, Evidence-Based
D064420	Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions	Disorders that result from the intended use of PHARMACEUTICAL PREPARATIONS. Included in this heading are a broad variety of chemically-induced adverse conditions due to toxicity, DRUG INTERACTIONS, and metabolic effects of pharmaceuticals.	Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reaction,Adverse Drug Event,Adverse Drug Reaction,Drug Side Effects,Drug Toxicity,Side Effects of Drugs,Toxicity, Drug,Adverse Drug Events,Adverse Drug Reactions,Drug Event, Adverse,Drug Events, Adverse,Drug Reaction, Adverse,Drug Reactions, Adverse,Drug Related Side Effects and Adverse Reaction,Drug Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions,Drug Side Effect,Drug Toxicities,Effects, Drug Side,Reactions, Adverse Drug,Side Effect, Drug,Side Effects, Drug,Toxicities, Drug