The effects of central (clonazepam, an agonist, and FG 7142, an inverse agonist), mixed (diazepam) or peripheral type (Ro 5-4864) benzodiazepine receptor ligands on the action of TRH on the transmurally stimulated rat duodenum and binding of [3H][3-Me-His2] TRH in the rat anterior pituitary, hypothalamus, cortex and brainstem have been studied. TRH dose-dependently inhibited the contractions of transmurally stimulated rate duodenum. Clonazepam (5 x 10(-6) M), diazepam (10(-5) M), Ro 5-4864 (10(-5) M) or FG 7142 (10(-5) M) attenuated the response of TRH in the rat duodenum. The action of these compounds was antagonized neither by the central type benzodiazepine antagonist flumazenil nor by peripheral type antagonist PK 11195 but instead PK 11195 itself counteracted TRH. TRH displaced [3H][3-Me-His2]TRH with Ki-values ranging 0.08 to 0.31 microM. Ki-values for clonazepam diazepam, Ro 5-4864, PK 11195 and FG 7142 ranged 6-117 microM, 3-23 microM, 20-67 microM, 20-40 microM and 260-420 microM, respectively, demonstrating fairly weak affinity to TRH-receptors. In saturation experiments, clonazepam and PK 11195 significantly increased KD but not Bmax of the labelled ligand while Ro 5-4864 increased both KD and Bmax. This indicates that all these compounds competitively inhibit the binding of [3H][3-Me-His2]TRH in the CNS which may also be the mechanism for their antagonism of the effect of TRH in the rat duodenum.