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Two experiments were performed to evaluate the long-term effects of a single anesthetic dose of sodium pentobarbital on novelty-induced behaviors. In Experiment I, when compared with controls 1 week after injection, pentobarbital-treated rats showed faster step-down latencies in a novelty box and an enhanced plasma corticosterone response to this novel environment. In Experiment 2, when exposed to a novel open field, pentobarbital treated animals showed significantly less ambulation and rearing than did control animals. As in the previous experiment, initial latency to move was significantly faster. Previous findings have demonstrated long-term effects of pentobarbital anesthesia on neurochemical and behavioral indices. The present results reemphasize that the consequences of anesthesia may be more prolonged than previously presumed.Studies investigating the behavioral effects of barbiturate administration have typically tested the animals a relatively short time after injection of the drug. In the short-term, barbiturates such as sodium pentobarbital have been shown to affect a variety of behaviors in experimental animals. For example, Cunha and Masur (1978) demonstrated that a 20-mg/kg dose of sodium pentobarbital in rats had the general effect of decreasing activity in the open field. This was indicated by reduced ambulation and rearing and longer periods of immobility. Low doses of pentobarbital can induce eating and drinking in satiated rats (Jacobs & Farel, 1971;Watson & Cox, 1976) and also appear to attenuate taste-neophobia in fluid-deprived animals (Rondeau, Jolicoeur, Kachanoff, Scherzer, & Wayne, 1975).Recently, McGee, Golus, and Russell-Jones (1980) showed that a single anesthesia-inducing dose of sodium pentobarbital reduced the taste neophobia exhibited by rats to a novel saccharin solution 1 week after drug administration. This finding confirmed an earlier observation by McGee and Golus (1980) that presurgical pentobarbital anesthesia in female rats attenuated taste neophobia 18 days after the operation. In addition, Power, Myers, Golus, and found elevated whole-brain serotonin levels in male rats 1 week after a single injection of 60 mg/kg sodium pentobarbital. While maternal consumption of barbiturates has long-term effects on the behavior of the offspring (Harris & Case, 1979), the above studies suggest that long-term behavioral and bio-R. McGee is now at:

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