Neonatal pain modulates in adolescent rats the antinociceptive effects of fluoxetine and buspirone administrated to their depressive dams during gestation.

Abstract

Previously, we have shown that the administration of a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor fluoxetine or a 5-HT1A receptor agonist buspirone to stressed rats during gestation causes in the offspring alleviation of formalin-induced pain, strengthened by prenatal stress. We have also found that neonatal inflammatory pain strengthens formalin-induced pain in prenatally unstressed rats in later life. In the present study, we investigated the effect of neonatal inflammatory pain on the time-course of the biphasic pain response in the formalin test in prenatally stressed adolescent rats of both sexes to evaluate whether neonatal pain affects the antinociceptive properties of these drugs administered to their depressed mothers during gestation. Our findings demonstrate that neonatal pain modulates in prenatally stressed rats the antinociceptive effect of fluoxetine and buspirone depending on the level of organization of pain response in the central nervous system, the phase of the time-course of the formalin-induced pain, and sex of the rat.