Am J Psychiatry 1977; 134:669-672
Copyright © 1977 by American Psychiatric Association
Neural mechanisms of benzodiazepine actions
FE Bloom
Current experimental paradigms emphasize neurotransmitter-specific
interactions to explain the behavioral effects of benzodiazepines.
According to this approach the broad range of effects observed suggests the
involvement of several transmitter systems without rigorously establishing
that any single transmitter system or physiological synaptic function is
either necessary or sufficient to express all benzodiazepine actions. Among
the effects that occur, potentiation of amino acid-mediated presynaptic
inhibition in the spinal cord and postsynaptic inhibitions elsewhere in the
brain are attractive testable hypotheses. However, direct physiological
evidence that benzodiazepines stimulate gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) or
other amino acids specifically and exclusively is needed to corroborate
this view.
