Effects of desipramine and alprazolam on forced swimming behaviour of adult rats exposed to prenatal diazepam

Abstract

Pregnant rats were treated with a single daily s.c. injection of diazepam (2 mg/kg) over gestation days 14–20. This treatment led to a reduction in GABA receptor complex function since adult male offspring showed a strong decrease in electrographic hippocampal responses to alprazolam and a strongly increased response to picrotoxin after intra-locus coeruleus injection of the two compounds. No difference in immobility time in the forced swimming test and in spontaneous motor activity was observed between prenatally vehicle- and diazepam-exposed offspring. Conversely, prenatal exposure to diazepam potentiated the anti-immobility effect of subchronic desipramine (10 mg/kg i.p.) and made active a dose of desipramine (5 mg/kg i.p.) that was ineffective in prenatally vehicle-exposed rats. This effect was observed only in pretested rats. Prenatal exposure to diazepam blocked the anti-immobility effect of subchronic alprazolam (15 mg/kg i.p.) in both non-pretested and pretested rats. Spontaneous motor activity was strongly reduced in all groups. These findings suggest that a persistent reduction in GABA receptor complex function, induced by prenatal exposure to diazepam, does not alter the mobility of adult progeny in the forced swimming test, but it may have consequences when drugs acting on the GABA receptor complex are used.