Abstract
Serotonin and noradrenaline are involved in the mechanisms of action of most antidepressant drugs. We examined the effects of chronic treatment with maprotiline, a selective inhibitor of noradrenaline reuptake, and fluxilan, a selective inhibitor of serotonin reuptake, on the behavior of unstressed controls and chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) model rats in the forced swim test (FST) and elevated plus maze test. Both selective reuptake inhibitors resulted in a significant reduction of time spent in immobility. Climbing was significantly increased in maprotiline- and swimming was exclusively elicited in the fluxilan-treated unstressed control and CUMS rats. Maprotiline-treated ani?mals displayed decreased anxiety and fluxilan-treated rats enhanced anxiety. The obtained results suggest that central noradrenergic and serotonergic systems might be affected differently during FST. The results also demonstrate that the anxiogenic effects of chronic fluxilan treatment are similar to those reported by many other studies. These differences observed for the effects of fluxilan in relation to those reported for maprotiline and probably due to the different phar?macological profiles of these drugs.
Highlights
Stress has been implicated as a causative factor in the development of depression
The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of chronic treatment with maprotiline, a selective inhibitor of noradrenaline reuptake, and fluxilan, a selective inhibitor of serotonin reuptake, in unstressed controls and chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) rats, including detailed analyses of behavior to determine if reuptake inhibitors selective for distinct monoaminergicsystems produce exclusive behavioral responses
There were significant effects of treatment with both antidepressants maprotiline (p
Summary
Stress has been implicated as a causative factor in the development of depression. It is known that noradrenergic and serotonergic neurons originating from cell bodies in the brain stem ascend to many brain regions thought to be involved in some of the symptoms associated with depression. Noradrenergic antidepressants are thought to have prominent effects on motivation and drive, while antidepressants acting on serotonin are believed to have beneficial effects on anxiety and mood in depressed patients (Montgomery, 1995, 1997). We i s s and co-workers (1981) were the first to discriminate different forms of active behavior in the FST Antidepressants acting on serotonin are thought to have beneficial effects on anxiety in depressed patients (Montgomery, 1995). Two studies reported that fluoxetine-treated animals displayed enhanced anxiety (Silva et al, 1999; Shishkina et al, 2006), while Rodgers and co-workers (1997) recorded an anxiolytic-like effect with a low dose of maprotiline
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