Neurochemical changes associated with the action of acute administration of diazepam in reversing the behavioral paradigm conditioned emotional response (CER)

Differential effects of MPEP and diazepam in tests of conditioned emotional response and Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer suggests 'anxiolytic' effects are mediated by different mechanisms

BACKGROUND

The selective mGluR5 antagonist 2-methyl-6-(phenylethynyl)-pyridine (MPEP) is reported to be anxiolytic in several animal models of anxiety, including the conditioned emotional response (CER) paradigm. Suppression of responding during conditioned stimulus (CS) presentation in CER may reflect behavioural competition between lever pressing and adopting a shock-avoidance posture, or it may alternatively reflect altered value of the food reward following its association with a footshock, thus reducing its ability to motivate responding. If this is the case, then drugs that reduce the CER may interfere with the mechanism by which CSs are able to motivate responding, rather than by reducing anxiety. The standard test of the ability of Pavlovian cues to motivate responding is the Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer (PIT) paradigm and it has recently been suggested that CER may be 'negative PIT'.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We compared the effect of MPEP (0, 3, 10 and 30 mg/kg) and diazepam (0, 1, 3 and 10 mg/kg) in CER and PIT.

RESULTS

Both MPEP and diazepam significantly reduced conditioned suppression in the CER paradigm. MPEP, but not diazepam, significantly reduced PIT.

CONCLUSION

The findings support the hypothesis that MPEP may reduce expression of anxiety in the CER paradigm by interfering with the way in which emotionally salient cues are able to affect behaviour, but do not support such an analysis of the effect of diazepam. Diazepam and MPEP may therefore achieve their effects in CER by influencing different psychological processes.

Long-term fluoxetine produces behavioral anxiolytic effects without inhibiting neuroendocrine responses to conditioned stress in rats

The aim of the present study was to investigate the anxiolytic effects of long-term treatment with fluoxetine in rats. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), such as fluoxetine, are used to treat anxiety and panic disorders, in addition to treating depression. A major concern with SSRIs is a 2-3-week delay in their therapeutic effects. SSRIs share with anxiolytic 5-HT(1A) agonists the ability to produce desensitization of post-synaptic 5-HT(1A) receptors. To investigate the anxiolytic effects of fluoxetine, rats were treated for 14 days with fluoxetine (10 mg kg(-1) day(-1), i.p. ). The rats were stressed using a conditioned stress procedure and tested one day after the last fluoxetine injection. Fluoxetine decreased stress-induced defecation (by 60%), reversed the stress-induced suppression of exploring behavior (by 59%) and shortened the duration of stress-induced freezing behavior (by 11. 5%). However, the stress-induced increase in plasma levels of ACTH, corticosterone, oxytocin, prolactin and renin were not inhibited by fluoxetine treatment. These findings suggest that neuroadaptive changes induced by sustained inhibition of serotonin (5-HT) reuptake, contribute to the mechanism of the anxiolytic effects of fluoxetine. In contrast, the neuroendocrine responses to conditioned stress are not affected by these neuroadaptive changes.