Dopaminergic activity of quipazine

Rats were trained to discriminate between the stimulus properties of intraperitoneal 0.16 mg/kg apomorphine and saline in a two-lever, food-motivated operant task. Administration of 1.0 mg/kg quipazine, a putative serotonin agonist, produced apomorphine-appropriate responding with a maximal effect occurring at 45 min post-injection. Pretreatment with either 2.0 mg/kg methysergide or 0.4 mg/kg haloperidol reduced quipazine-induced responding upon the apomorphine-appropriate lever to levels observed with methysergide or haloperidol administered alone. These results evidence a dopaminergic action for quipazine and suggest that central serotonergic and dopaminergic pathways may interact cooperatively to control behavior.