The effect of 4-weeks voluntary exercise on separation anxiety disorder in rats

Background: Separation anxiety is the most common anxiety disorder in children. The neglected treatment of this disorder at early ages may be a risk factor for other childhood and adult psychological disorders. The early years of life are considered to be one of the most critical stages of human development and any physical or psychological damage will cause the effects on sustainability in other stages of human development. So, the aim of this study was to investigate the role of voluntary physical activity on depression caused by maternal separation stress in male rats. Materials and methods: In the present study, we applied maternal separation (MS) ‎as a valid animal model of early life adversity to male Wistar ‎albino rats from postnatal ‎day (PND) 2 to 14 for 180 min per day. At PND 21, rats were randomly divided into three experimental groups (Control, MS, Running Wheel exercise). At ‎PND 60, depressive-like behaviors were assessed by using forced ‎swimming test. Results: Our result revealed the depressive-like behaviors following MS ‎stress. In the Running Wheel group depression treatment behavior was observed. ‎ Conclusion: In this study we found that running wheel exercise as a voluntary physical training unlike mandatory physical exercise during adolescence is able to change depressive-like behaviors.