title: Citalopram counteracts depressive-like symptoms evoked by chronic social stress in rats.
abstract: Recently, we have described a new model of chronic social stress in rats, based on the resident-intruder paradigm. In this model, rats show behavioural changes that may be considered correlates of depressive symptoms, such as anhedonia and motivational deficits. The present study was designed for pharmacological validation of this model. Animals were socially stressed for 5 weeks and, in parallel, after the first week of stress, they were subjected to chronic (4 weeks) treatment with the antidepressant drug citalopram. The drug was administered via drinking water (30 mg/kg). The optimal dose of citalopram was determined in a pilot study. After 4 weeks of treatment, plasma levels of citalopram and its metabolite were found to be within the human therapeutic range. The effects of social stress and citalopram treatment were assessed by behavioural tests. Chronically stressed rats showed reduced locomotor and exploratory activity, reduced sucrose preference and increased immobility time in the forced swimming test. Chronic oral administration of citalopram abolished those effects and normalized behaviours related to motivation and reward sensitivity. These observations provide evidence for the predictive validity of the chronic social stress paradigm as a model of depressive symptoms in rats.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Göttingen, Germany. fafeluszek@gmail.com
authors.forename: Rafal
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rygula
authors.forename: Nashat
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Abumaria
authors.forename: Gabriele
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Flügge
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hiemke
authors.forename: Eberhard
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fuchs
authors.forename: Eckart
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rüther
authors.forename: Ursula
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Havemann-Reinecke
mesh_terms: D000284:Administration, Oral; D000818:Animals; D000928:Antidepressive Agents / Q000493:pharmacokinetics / Q000494:pharmacology*; D015283:Citalopram / Q000493:pharmacokinetics / Q000494:pharmacology*; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004291:Dominance-Subordination; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D005106:Exploratory Behavior / Q000187:drug effects; D005518:Food Preferences / Q000187:drug effects; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000187:drug effects; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012919:Social Behavior; D012931:Social Environment; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology; D013395:Sucrose; D013550:Swimming; D013649:Taste / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D000928:Antidepressive Agents; D015283:Citalopram; D013395:Sucrose