Klein E, Zohar J, Geraci M F, Murphy D L, Uhde T W
Section of Anxiety and Affective Disorders, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD 20892.
Biol Psychiatry. 1991 Nov 15;30(10):973-84. doi: 10.1016/0006-3223(91)90119-7.
The behavioral and neuroendocrine effects of meta-chlorophenylpiperazine (m-CPP), a serotonergic agonist, were compared with the effects of caffeine, an adenosine antagonist, in panic disorder patients. Patients with panic disorder were given single oral doses of 0.5 mg/kg m-CPP, 480 mg caffeine, and placebo on separate days under double-blind conditions. Both m-CPP and caffeine had significantly greater anxiogenic and panic-inducing effects than placebo, although caffeine produced nonsignificantly greater increases on all anxiety rating scales than m-CPP. Both m-CPP and caffeine produced significant equivalent increases in plasma cortisol concentrations, but only m-CPP produced plasma prolactin increases. These findings provide further evidence implicating both the serotonergic and adenosinergic receptor systems in the neurobiology of panic disorder.
