Phagocytic activity in stressed mice: effects of alprazolam.

Mice exposed to a chronic auditory stressor and daily injected with alprazolam (1 mg/kg/day, s.c.) showed a reduction in stress-induced suppression of the in vitro and in vivo activity of phagocytosis, measured using the zymosan particle uptake method and the carbon clearance test, respectively. Pretreatment with Ro-15-1788 (10 mg/kg, s.c.), a central nervous system benzodiazepine antagonist, resulted in suppression of the effects of alprazolam in stressed mice.