Atropine Number Facility performance

The performance of each subject on the Number Facility Test after Injection was compared with his scores on the three validity scales and 10 standard scales of the Minnesota (hiltlphaslc Personality Index (MMPl). The best correlations between performance In the Number Facility Test and scores on scales In the MMPI for the men given atropine at 62 Mg/kg were with those In the h/pochondrlasls and mania scales. The best correlations for the men given atropine at 104 g/kg were with scores In the lie and mania scales. For the men given scopolamine at 11.8 pg/kg, the best correlations were with scores In the hypochondriasis and lie scales. If atropine and scopolamine are taken as representative of the group of tropic acid esters, the best Indexes of performance In the Number Facility Test under the Influence of such esters are the scores In the lie, l pochondrlasls, and mania scales of the MMPI. 

After a similar analysis for five anticholinergic compounds, three other substances trlth atropine and scopolamine, IClapper et al. (162) decided that scores In the positive test-taking attitude, hypochondriasis, and mania scales of the MMPI were positively related to performance In the Number Facility Test. 

Although the ratios between the ED qs of atropine and of the other anticholinergic compounds for the production of the different effects varied somewhat, intravenously injected scopolamine hydrobromide was about 8.7 times as active as atropine sulfate and, when Injected Intramuscularly, about 7.5 times as effective as atropine sulfate. Scopolamine methylbromlde was about A times as active as atropine sulfate, except chat no dose of the former substance produced as much as a 9CX decrease In performance In the Number Facility Test, so comparative potencies had to be assigned on the basis of less than maximal actions by atropine and scopolamine. Therefore, scopolamine methylbromlde was only about 532 as potent as the l dro bromide. 

Intramuscular injections of scopolamine hydrobromide at 26 pg/kg and of atropine sulfate at 175 ug/kg Induced approximately equal decrements In performance In the Number Facility Test, except that the maximal effect after scopolamine was attained in about half the time required to reach that after atropine. Intravenously Injected scopolamine hydrobromide produced Its maximal effect even more rapidly than that Injected Intramuscularly. Scopolamine mett lbromlde was slower In exerting Its maximal tachycardlsd. effect than scopolamine faydrobromlde, but no Information about the rapidity of Its action on performance In the Number Facility Test was provided In any of the three reports (24,165,166). The Increase In heart rate Induced by scopolamine methylbromlde was greater than those Induced by the same amounts of scopolamine hydrobromide or atropine sulfate. 

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