Abstract
The effects of dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DEAS) on anxiety and depressive behavior were studied in animals subjected to chronic stress. Injections of DEAS (30 mg/kg) to male CBA/Lac mice decreased anxiety in submissive animals (with high levels of stress-induced anxiety formed as a result of defeats in intermale agonistic confrontations for 20 days) in the partition and plus maze tests, this being seen in control animals only in the plus maze test. In repeatedly stressed animals (shaking on a shuttle apparatus for 1 h/day for 18 days) and control Wistar rats, DEAS (30 mg/kg) decreased signs of depressive behavior in the Porsolt test. Administration of the antagonist naltrexone at doses of 0.25 mg/kg to mice and 0.1 mg/kg to rats, which are selective for μ receptors, reversed the anxiolytic and antidepressant actions of DEAS, providing evidence that μ opioid receptors play a role in these effects.
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