The non-sedating anxiolytic CGS 9896 produces discriminative stimuli that may be related to an anxioselective effect.

Sprague Dawley albino rats were trained to discriminate an internal stimulus associated with CGS 9896, a non-sedating pyrazoloquinoline that exhibits anxiolytic activity in animals. Classical anxiolytics (diazepam and meprobamate) and proposed anxiolytic drugs having low sedative potential (CL 218,872 and tracazolate) generalized to the CGS 9896 discriminative cue. The CGS 9896 cue appeared to be mediated by a pure anxiolytic action as previous research has shown that this compound does not produce sedation or muscle relaxation. As such, the CGS 9896 stimulus would have both research and clinical application in the investigation of selective anxiomodulation. This is the first report of discriminative stimuli established on one of the newer atypical anxiolytics in which the discriminative cue appeared related to an anxiolytic effect.