The effects of co-administration of opium and morphine with nicotine during pregnancy on spatial learning and memory of adult male offspring rats

Objective(s): Smoking opium/cigarette is a global health concern. The aim of this study was to examine learning and memory of rat male offsprings whose mothers had been exposed to either opium or morphine with nicotine during pregnancy. Materials and Methods: Wistar rats were used for the experiments. In the female rats, opium, morphine and nicotine dependencies were induced by daily injections of drug solution for 10 days before mating. Spatial memory was tested by Morris water maze test in male pups at the postnatal day 60. The duration that took until the rats found the platform in the maze and also their swimming speed were recorded. Results: An increase in the platform finding duration was observed for the pups of dependent mothers in comparison with the control in the training trial (P