Skin conductance reaction (SCR)-habituation test, a tool to detect anxiolytic activity. Its justification by the correlation between SCR-habituation test activities and specific binding potencies in benzodiazepines.

Correlation between specific binding potencies "in vitro" of several benzodiazepines and activities in SCR-habituation test is very satisfactory. As the SCR-habituation test might be considered as an elementary model of anxiety state, the test is suggested to be used as an intermediate psychopharmacological tool before clinical study. SCR-magnitude test exhibits no correlation of this kind proving that sedative activity is of a different mechanism.