Abstract
Daily treatment of rats with 0.3 or 0.6 meq/kg rubidium chloride (RbCl) causes an increase in shock-elicited aggressive behavior relative to potassium chloride-treated controls. Aggressive responses increase immediately with the higher dose of RbCl and are maintained for 12 days. The lower RbCl dosage increases fighting behavior significantly after 11 consecutive injection days. Measurements of flinch, jump, and vocalization threshold reveal no consistent pattern with treatment; thus, it is unlikely that threshold changes underlie the observed increases in aggression.
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Supported by MH 19130, NICH & HD 02881, ONR 102-715 and by a gift from Istituto Farmacoterapico Italiano, Rome, Italy.
Recipient of Career Development Award MH 24,161 from NIMH.
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Stolk, J.M., Conner, R.L. & Barchas, J.D. Rubidium-induced increase in shock-elicited aggression in rats. Psychopharmacologia 22, 250–260 (1971). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00401787
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00401787