The continuous infusion of 45 mg/kg/24 hr of phencyclidine (PCP) into the jugular vein of unrestrained rats induced tolerance to PCP-induced impairment of forced motor activity and physical dependence in 3.5 and 7 days, respectively. In drug-naive rats, an i.v. 2-mg/kg PCP test dose abolished rotarod performance for more than 20 min which returned to pretreatment values at 40 min. Eight hours after the termination of 3.5 days of infusion, rotarod performance of PCP-infused rats was significantly less impaired by the PCP test dose at 20 min than that of saline-infused controls. After infusion of PCP for 7 days, the duration of performance abolition produced by the PCP test dose (given 8 hr after the termination of infusion) was shortened further with performance significantly better than that of saline-infused controls at both 10 and 20 min. The results showed a greater than 2-fold tolerance development to this PCP effect and suggest the observed tolerance to be mainly functional in nature. Abrupt withdrawal of PCP after infusion for 7 days resulted in an abstinence syndrome with the following signs: piloerection, increased susceptibility to audiogenic seizures, transient weight loss and reductions in exploratory activity and rotarod performance. The first withdrawal signs were noted 4 hr after the termination of infusion. At 24 hr of abstinence, most of the withdrawal signs had subsided. The reduced rotarod performance, associated with withdrawal, could be reversed by a single i.v. dose of 2 mg/kg of PCP. The reversibility of this sign supports the interpretation of impaired rotarod performance after withdrawal as being an abstinence sign and adds to the experimental evidence that physical dependence on PCP is inducible within 7 days in rats.