Effects of tandospirone in three behavioral tests for anxiolytics

The azapirone putative anxiolytic tandospirone was evaluated in two behavioral screening methods that identify known azapirone anxiolytics and one method that identifies only sedative-hypnotic anxiolytics. Tandospirone produced a large increase in punished key-pecking for food in pigeon and a large increase in cork gnawing in rat. It did not produce a large increase in punished lever-pressing for food in rat, a result that to some extent contradicts reports from other laboratories. It was equipotent with buspirone in pigeon, but in rat it was ten times less potent than buspirone in disrupting the lever-press response and increasing cork gnawing. The results indicate that tandospirone is qualitatively similar to the other azapirone anxiolytics buspirone, gepirone and ipsapirone and is different from sedative-hypnotic anxiolytics.