Diazepam (DZ) and scopolamine (SCP) are known to be beneficial when each is used in combination with atropine (AT) + oxime therapy against intoxication by soman, but the efficacy of each might be expected to vary with the dosage of AT. Thus the therapeutic efficacy of SCP (5 doses; 0-0.86 mg/kg) versus DZ (5 doses; 0-5 mg/kg), when used in conjunction with AT (3 doses; 0.5-8 mg/kg) + 2-PAM (25 mg/kg) therapy, was tested in groups of pyridostigmine pretreated guinea pigs exposed to 1.6, 2.0, 2.5 or 3.2 LD50s of soman. Response surface methodology was employed to describe the relationship between lethality and the AT/DZ or AT/SCP dosages. Results show that within the indicated dose ranges used, the efficacy of SCP is not dependent on the presence of AT, whereas AT is needed for DZ to maintain the lowest probability of death. These findings suggest that in guinea pigs SCP could supplement AT or replace DZ as therapy against nerve agent intoxication.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of acute and chronic cocaine administration on aggressive behaviour in mice. The animals were made more aggressive by individual housing for a period of 6 weeks. Group-housed anosmic conspecifics which were not aggressive were used as intruder controls. In acute studies, cocaine induced no significant change in aggressive behaviour at low doses (0.5-5 mg/kg) but significantly decreased aggressive behaviour after doses of 10 and 20 mg/kg. Cocaine increased the isolation-induced aggressive behaviour in mice when they were injected twice daily for a week with low doses of 0.5 or 1 mg/kg. In particular, the latency to first attack was significantly decreased by the drug and the frequency of attack towards the non-aggressive intruder was dramatically increased. Higher cocaine doses (10 or 20 mg/kg) under the described treatment regimen decreased these agonistic repertories. Tolerance did not develop to the anti-aggressive effects of high doses of cocaine on continued treatment.

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