Buspirone attenuates learned helplessness behavior in rats

Rats pretreated with either chlordiazepoxide (5 mg/kg) or buspirone (5 mg/kg) did not develop the shuttlebox escape deficit typically observed 24 hours after a session of inescapable tailshock. In contrast, the buspirone analog gepirone (MJ 13805)(2 or 5 mg/kg) did not block this shock-induced learning deficit. These results demonstrate that the nonbenzodiazepine anxiolytic buspirone, like chlordiazepoxide, attenuates the learned helplessness syndrome.