On the effects of lindane on the plus-maze model of anxiety.

The behavioral effects of an acute subconvulsant dose of the insecticide and ectoparasiticide gamma-hexachlorocyclohexane, lindane, were compared in the plus-maze ((+)-maze) animal model of anxiety to those elicited by the anxiogenic GABAA-antagonist pentylenetetrazole (PTZ) and the anxiolytic benzodiazepine diazepam. The effects of the coadministration of diazepam and lindane, and of diazepam and PTZ were also studied. The results from the analysis of the data with the multivariate statistical technique principal component analysis indicated that the effects of subconvulsant doses of lindane and PTZ on the behavior of rats in the (+)-maze are similar, and opposite to those elicited by diazepam, and that the administration of the convulsants would antagonize the effects of the benzodiazepine. The putative anxiogenic properties of the insecticide and the utility of the (+)-maze model in neurotoxicological research are discussed.