Short-term individual housing induced social deficits in female Mongolian gerbils: Attenuation by chronic but not acute imipramine

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Mongolian gerbils are highly sensitive to manipulations of their social environments. Housing females individually for short periods (in the order of 7–21 days) has been shown to produce robust and reliable impairments of their subsequent social behaviour. These effects are typified by a marked reduction in the social investigation of an unfamiliar male in a neutral arena and/or a marked increases in levels of freezing whilst and only whilst they are being socially investigated (Immobile in contact). These responses demonstrate housing induced impaired motivation to socially interact. These effects have also been shown to be sensitive to treatment with chronic (but not acute) administration of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) fluoxetine. It was therefore of interest to know if similar effects would be produced by treatment with the tricyclic antidepressant Imipramine. This mixed NA/5-HT reuptake inhibitor first developed in the 1950's is a commonly used standard in animal models of depression and remains in clinical use today.Female gerbils were individually housed for 7 days or maintained in single-sex groups of 4 for the same period. All animals were then randomly allocated to be administered with either 0, 10 or 20 mg/kg imipramine. Acute administration did not reverse the social impairments produced by the individual housing but did produce non-specific stimulant effects on locomotion in both housing conditions. These social impairments were however reduced after a further 14 days chronic treatment with 10 or 20 mg/kg imipramine and stimulant effects were no longer seen. Following chronic administration in group-housed animals locomotor stimulation was replaced with sedation, which resulted in a reduction in social behaviour. That is, opposite to the effect seen in Individual housed animals. It is therefore concluded that chronic treatment with imipramine serves to increase social behaviour but only in those animals with a pre-existing social deficit.