Behavioral efficacy of diazepam against nerve agent exposure in rhesus monkeys. (Reannouncement with new availability information)
The possibility that nerve agents will be used on the battlefield is real. The traditional therapy against nerve agent exposure consists of pyridostigmine pretreatment and atropine-pralidoxime chloride therapy administered after nerve agent exposure. This therapy regimen is extremely effective in preventing mortality in laboratory animals exposed to multilethal concentrations of nerve agent, yet these animals often display convulsions, brain damage, and behavioral incapacitation. We report here that the addition of diazepam to the traditional therapy for nerve agent (soman) exposure not only decreases the incidence of convulsions, but also attenuates the cognitive impairments of rhesus monkeys trained on a Serial Probe Recognition (SPR) task. Monkeys which received diazepam treatment required only 6 days before their performance on the SPR task returned to presoman exposure levels, compared to nondiazepamtreated monkeys which required 15 days. Moreover, only 1 out of the 5 monkeys which received diazepain treatment suffered tonic-clonic convulsions; in contrast all 5 monkeys which did not receive diazepam treatment experienced severe convulsive episodes. These results suggest that diazepam would be an excellent adjunct to traditional nerve agent therapy to facilitate behavioral recovery from nerve agent intoxication that might be encountered by US military personnel on the battlefield or accidental organophosphate poisoning encountered in industrial or agricultural accidents. Serial probe recognition task, diazepam, nerve agents, soman convulsions, rhesus monkeys, cognition, organophosphate.
- Research Organization:
- Army Medical Research Inst. of Chemical Defense, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 166864
- Report Number(s):
- AD-A-250684/8/XAB; USAMRICD-P-91-002; TRN: 53520625
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: 1991
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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