Behavioral pharmacology toward eutherapy: A genetic model of dystonia

A generally accepted theory explaining the etiology of dystonia has yet to be established. Research on dystonia has focused on understanding the aberrant gene causing the disease. From a different perspective, this dissertation investigated some of the exogenic and life cycle factors affecting dystonia in an attempt to establish an understanding of dystonia as a multifactorial disease.; The life cycle factors investigated included ontogenic factors (genetic background and age), and maternal factors (pregnancy, parturition, and lactation). The exogenic factors included environmental manipulations such as noise, time of day, light deprivation, and previous exposure to a particular stimulus, as well as pharmacological manipulations with pentylenetetrazol, caffeine, diazepam, flumazenil, tremorine, trihexyphenidyl, L-dopa, trimethadione, and Yohimbine. The exogenic factors, through influencing the internal environment, in addition to the ontogenic factors were found to influence the dystonia gene expression and cause dramatypic changes.; This dissertation pointed to the potential of audio- and chronotherapy in preventing dystonic symptoms. It introduced two new coisogenic strains of dystonic hamsters (UGA 400 and UGA 900) in addition to UGA 700 commonly used in the literature. It also introduced adult and pregnant dystonic hamster models adding to the validity of that animal model for studying dystonia to the extent that it resembles the disease in humans. It finally established the multifactorial nature of dystonia.