Specific antagonists of the acute behavioral response to centrally-administered vasopressin in mice.

Vasopressin and related peptides cause behavioral excitation after intracerebroventricular injection in mice. This behavioral excitation is characterized by excessive scratching and grooming behavior in the unrestrained animal and enhanced escape-directed activity in stressful situations. These effects of vasopressin were found to be blocked by the administration of analogs which act as competitive antagonists of the pressor-activity of vasopressin. The potencies of these analogs in suppressing the behavioral effect paralleled the pressor antagonist potencies. The antagonists did not cause the characteristic behavioral alterations by themselves, nor did they block grooming and/or scratching behavior induced by the structurally-unrelated substances, mescaline, bombesin and substance P. It is suggested that these antagonists provide useful tools for studying the role of endogenous vasopressin in behavior.