title: Swimming exercise attenuates psychological dependence and voluntary methamphetamine consumption in methamphetamine withdrawn rats.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study evaluated the effect of swimming exercise during spontaneous methamphetamine (METH) withdrawal on the anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and voluntary METH consumption in METH-dependent rats.
  
  
  METHODS
  Male Wistar rats were repeatedly administered with bi-daily doses of METH (2 mg/kg, subcutaneous) over a period of 14 days. Exercised rats were submitted to swimming sessions (45 min/day, five days per week, for 14 days) during spontaneous METH-withdrawal. Then, all animals were tested for the assessment of anxiety by using the elevated plus-maze (EPM), the grooming behaviors (OCD), and depression using forced swimming test (FST) and voluntary METH consumption using a two-bottle choice (TBC) paradigm for the assessment of craving.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results showed that the swimmer METH-withdrawn rats exhibited an increase in EPM open arm time and entries and a reduction of immobility and grooming behaviors compared with the sedentary METH groups. Also, voluntary METH consumption was less in the swimmer METH-withdrawn rats than the sedentary METH groups throughout 5-8 days.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study showed that regular swimming exercise reduced voluntary METH consumption in animal models of craving by reducing anxiety, OCD, and depression in the METH-withdrawn rats. Thus, physical training may be ameliorating some of the withdrawal behavioral consequences of METH.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Semnan, Semnan, Iran.
authors.forename: Fatemeh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Damghani
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Educational Sciences and Psychology, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran.
authors.forename: Imanollah
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Bigdeli
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Animal Addiction Models, Research Center and Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Semnan University of Medical Sciences, Semnan, Iran.
authors.forename: Hossein
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Miladi-Gorji
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Semnan, Semnan, Iran.
authors.forename: Atefeh
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fadaei
keywords: Anxiety; Craving; Depression; Methamphetamine-abstinance; Obsessive-compulsive disorder; Swimming