Although neurotrophins have been postulated to have antidepressant properties, their effect on anxiety is not clear. We find that transgenic overexpression of the neurotrophin BDNF has an unexpected facilitatory effect on anxiety-like behavior, concomitant with increased spinogenesis in the basolateral amygdala. Moreover, anxiogenesis and amygdalar spinogenesis are also triggered by chronic str...

A recent study conducted a factor analysis on 18 behavioural measures obtained from four alcohol-preferring and five alcohol-non-preferring rat lines/strains. It was concluded that variables such as saccharin intake, ultrasonic vocalizations following an air puff, and defaecation in an open field were associated with voluntary and forced alcohol consumption. In contrast, measures such as time i...

Background: Fatigue is a common side effect in cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy (RT). Radiation-induced fatigue affects the quality of life, but there is no definitive treatment option. In this study, the weight-loaded forced swim test was performed to assess the effect of coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) on radiation-induced fatigue. Materials and Methods: A total of 60 rats were divided rando...

The dorsal raphe nucleus (DR)-serotonin (5-HT) system has been implicated in depression and is dramatically affected by swim stress, an animal model with predictive value for antidepressants. Accumulating evidence implicates the stress-related neuropeptide corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) in the effect of swim stress on this system. This study investigated neural circuits within the DR that...

To study anxiolytic and antidepressant effect of Astaxanthin as an adjuvant to standard drug.In this study, to investigate the effects of astaxanthin on anxiety and depression,we performed some behavioural trials including elevated plus maze test, hole-board test, forced swim test, and tail suspension test.Astaxanthin ( 3 mg/kg/day for 15 days, orally) significantly increased the time spent in ...

Background Diagnosing Airway hyper-responsiveness (AHR) requires bronchial provocation tests that are performed at rest and after exercise or hyperventilation in either a lab or field setting. Presently, it is unclear whether the proposed AHR field test for swimming induces sufficient provocation due to lack of intensity. Thus we aimed to examine how the 8 minute field swim test compared to all...