Discussion of Jouvet’s Paper

Abstract

Alexander H. Friedman, Dept. of Pharmacology, Loyola University Medical Center. I would like to throw in another candidate to the monoamine game for Dr. Jouvet. I refer in particular to the work of Professor Monnier (1969) who reported a waking action for histamine. I refer also to some of our own work (Friedman and Walker, 1968) demonstrating certain circadian rhythms in which histamine levels are peaking during the period when the animal is alert and are 180 degrees out of phase with serotonine levels. And I also refer to the actions of antihistamines as sedatives. And to some of the work of Carl Pfeiffers group (1969) on histamine levels in individuals suffering from manic or depressive psychoses. So I think perhaps histamine might be incorporated into this monoamine game, and I would like to hear Dr. Jouvets comments.