Clomipramine modifies fluctuations of forced swimming immobility in different phase of the rat estrous cycle

RESUMO

Many symptoms that define the premenstrual syndrome (PMS) are present in depressive states. The fact that there are not adequate animal models to study the OMS may explain the lack of knowledge about its etiology. An alternative might be the use of animal models which are useful to study depression, such as the forced swimming test. Eighteen female rats were subjected to the forced swimming test once a week for six consecutive weeks. An increase of immobility was observed during diestrus as compared to estrus. On the other hand, some premestrual symptoms have been suggested to be caused by the influence of gonadal hormones on the activity of cental serotonergic systems. Thus, the effects of clomipramine were further studied. The drug reduced rat immobility during diestrus, so that the differences between the two estrous cycle phases disappeared. We conclude that the use of the forced swimming test might be a helpful model in the study of OMS