A RAPID METHOD FOR ASSESSING DRUG INHIBITION OF FEEDING BEHAVIOR

¹ Biological Research Department, Research Division, McNeil Laboratories, Inc., Fort Washington, Pennsylvania

A simple quantitative test procedure for assessing the anorexigenic potential of drugs is described. The data presented suggest that this test procedure has as an end point preferential feeding behavior and may, as a consequence, be a test which measures drug-induced suppression of "appetite."

Of 10 drugs tested 4 were very potent: d-amphetamine, methamphetarnine, and two oxazolines, McN-742 (2-amino-5-phenyl oxazoline) and McN-822 (2-amino-4-methyl-5-phenyl oxazoline). A group of drugs of intermediate potency consisted of dl-amphetamine, diethylpropion, and methyl phenidate. Phenmetrazine and phendimetrazine displayed slight potency, and l-amphetamine was inactive.

Of the drugs tested, the oxazolines appear to be very interesting in that McN-742, in addition to being as potent an anorexigen as d-amphetamine, is longer acting than this substance.

In addition to the quantification of anorexigenic potency, the test procedure demonstrated that, at effective dose levels, all of the anorexigens display a similar degree of central nervous system stimulation. It appears that a drug, to be vested with anorexigenic activity, must also be a central nervous stimulant. However, not all central nervous stimulants are anorexigens.

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