title: Acute and chronic anxiogenic-like response to fluoxetine in rats in the elevated plus-maze: modulation by stressful handling.
abstract: While antidepressants are widely prescribed to humans for the treatment of anxiety, the results achieved with animal anxiety models are conflicting. The experimental procedure and the prior test history of the animals are critical parameters that are largely susceptible to influence the results and their interpretation. We compared the effect of 5mg fluoxetine administered to six groups of rats subjected to the psychopharmacological test of the elevated plus-maze, under experimental conditions designed to demonstrate the effect of handling and one daily injection on the response to fluoxetine. The results show that for animals with the same recent experience, fluoxetine, when administered once or over a period of 15 days, induces anxiogenic-like behaviour. On the other hand, our results also show that stressful handling has an anxiolytic-like effect modulating the anxiogenic-like effect of fluoxetine, without eliminating it altogether.
authors.affiliation: Service Hospitalo-Universitaire de Psychiatrie, Centre Hospitalier Guillaume Régnier, 108 avenue du Général Leclerc, Rennes, France. gabrielrobert@wanadoo.fr
authors.forename: Gabriel
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Robert
authors.forename: Dominique
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Drapier
authors.forename: Danièle
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bentué-Ferrer
authors.forename: Alain
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Renault
authors.forename: Jean-Michel
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Reymann
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D020533:Angiogenesis Inhibitors / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D000818:Animals; D001007:Anxiety / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005473:Fluoxetine / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006234:Handling, Psychological; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000187:drug effects; D011897:Random Allocation; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D018570:Risk Assessment; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D020533:Angiogenesis Inhibitors; D005473:Fluoxetine