title: Swimming reduces the severity of physical and psychological dependence and voluntary morphine consumption in morphine dependent rats.
abstract: Previous studies have indicated that voluntary exercise decreases the severity of the anxiogenic-like behaviors in both morphine-dependent and withdrawn rats. This study examined the effects of regular swimming exercise during the development of dependency and spontaneous morphine withdrawal on the anxiety-depression profile and voluntary morphine consumption in morphine dependent rats. The rats were chronically treated with bi-daily doses (10 mg/kg, at 12h intervals) of morphine over a period of 14 days. The exercising rats were allowed to swim (45 min/d, five days per a week, for 14 or 21 days) during the development of morphine dependence and withdrawal. Then, rats were tested for the severity of morphine dependence, the elevated plus-maze (EPM), sucrose preference test (SPT) and voluntary morphine consumption using a two-bottle choice paradigm in animal models of craving. The results showed that withdrawal signs were decreased in swimmer morphine dependent rats than sedentary rats (P<0.05). Also, the swimmer morphine-dependent and withdrawn rats exhibited an increase in EPM open arm time and entries (P<0.05), higher levels of sucrose preference (P<0.001) than sedentary rats. Voluntary consumption of oral morphine was less in the swimmer morphine-withdrawn rats than the sedentary groups during four periods of the intake of drug (P<0.01). We conclude that regular swimming exercise reduces the severity of morphine dependence and voluntary morphine consumption with reducing anxiety and depression in morphine-dependent and withdrawn rats. Thus, swimming exercise may be a potential method to ameliorate some of the deleterious behavioral consequences of morphine dependence.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Semnan, Semnan, Iran.
authors.forename: Atefeh
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fadaei
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Animal Addiction Models, Research Center and Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Semnan University of Medical Sciences, Semnan, Iran. Electronic address: Miladi331@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Hossein Miladi
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Gorji
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Semnan, Semnan, Iran.
authors.forename: Shahrokh Makvand
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Hosseini
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001007:Anxiety / Q000150:complications / Q000628:therapy; D066249:Craving; D003863:Depression / Q000150:complications / Q000628:therapy; D008297:Male; D009020:Morphine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D009021:Morphine Dependence / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D010805:Physical Conditioning, Animal; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013375:Substance Withdrawal Syndrome / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D013550:Swimming / Q000523:psychology*
chemical_list: D009020:Morphine
keywords: Anxiety; Craving; Depression; Morphine-dependent and withdrawn rats; Swimming exercise