Administration of α-lipoic acid and silymarin attenuates aggression by modulating endocrine, oxidative stress and inflammatory pathways in mice.

Aggression, a highly prevalent behavior among all the psychological disorders having strong association with psychiatric imbalance, neuroendocrine changes and neurological disturbances (including oxidative stress & neuroinflammation) require both pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments. Focusing the preclinical neuroendocrine determinants of aggression, this interventional study was designed to elucidate the curative effect of antioxidants on aggression in male mice. Adult albino male mice (n = 140) randomly divided into two main treatment groups for α-lipoic acid (ALA) and silymarin with 5 subgroups (n = 10) for each curative study, namely control, disease (aggression-induced), standard (diazepam, 2.5 mg/kg), low dose (100 mg/kg) and high dose (200 mg/kg) treatment groups of selected antioxidants. Resident-intruder paradigm and levodopa (L-dopa 375 mg/kg, p.o.) induced models were used for aggression. Effect of antioxidant treatment (i.e., 21 days bid) on aggression was assessed by evaluating the changes in aggressive behavior, oxidative stress biomarkers superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione, nitrite and malondialdehyde (SOD, CAT, GSH, nitrite & MDA), neurotransmitters (dopamine, nor-adrenaline and serotonin), pro-inflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin- 6 (TNF-α & IL-6) along with serum testosterone examination. This study showed potential ameliorative effect on aggressive behavior with both low (100 mg/kg) and high (200 mg/kg) doses of antioxidants (ALA & silymarin). Resident-intruder or L-dopa induced aggression in male mice was more significantly tuned with ALA treatment than silymarin via down regulating both oxidative stress and inflammatory biomarkers. ALA also exhibited notable effects in managing aggression-induced disturbances on plasma testosterone levels. In conclusion, ALA is more effective than silymarin in attenuating aggression in mice.

RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF BECK DEPRESSION INVENTORY AMONG GENERAL POPULATION IN KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA, PAKISTAN.

BACKGROUND: Beck Depression Inventory is frequently used for assessing depression across different cultures. Despite widely application of Beck Depression Inventory, there is surprisingly lack of empirical research on psychometric validation of this scale in Pakistan. In this regard the current study has determined the reliability and validity of Beck Depression Inventory in Pakistan. METHODS: Urdu version Beck Depression Inventory was administration to 250 Inpatient and Outpatient Department visitors in Ayub Teaching Hospital, Abbottabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Initially reliability was determined and later on validly analysis was done. RESULTS: The reliability results show that Cronbach alphas ranged from 0.75 to 0.92, whereas inter-item correlations ranged from 0.53 to 0.78. The validity analysis show that factor loadings for all items of Beck Depression Inventory ranged from 0.77 to 0.93. Furthermore, the two subscales presented good model fit indices, thus conforming its construct validity. CONCLUSION: The results of current study show that Beck Depression Inventory has good psychometric properties followed by its administration to general population in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan; therefore this scale could be effectively used for assessing depression in Pakistan