[Modeling of schizophrenia with Levodopa + Carbidopa].

Animal experimental modeling of mental disorders helps revealing mechanisms of the diseases and identifying effective methods of their treatment. The aim this study was to develop a new model of schizophrenia by oral Levodopa + Carbidopa (LC) administration. It was found that introduction of LC to rats induced a significant reduction of emotional reactions, hypersensitivity to a sound, a decreased exploratory activity and stereotype behavior, locomotor hyperactivity in some rats. It is concluded that LC introduction to rats may be used as an alternative dopaminergic animal model of schizophrenia.

[Treatment side effects and compliance in patients with depression].

The impact of treatment side-effects on the compliance was studied in 85 depressive patients with different mental disorders - recurrent depressive disorder, postschizophrenic depression and organic affective disorder. The comparison of objective and subjective evaluations of compliance and a comparative analysis of the level of compliance, with its dependence on the treatment specifics, in different diseases were done. A significant role of efficacy and treatment side-effects was identified. The levels of "mental" and "autonomous" side-effects were highest in the treatment of depression: patients with postschizophrenic depression had the highest risk in respect of maintenance treatment; patients with recurrent depressive disorder and organic (affective) disorder were more tolerant to the treatment side-effects and their treatment, including the maintenance therapy, was rather effective. The compliance of all patients with depression was negatively correlated with the severity of side-effects of pharmacotherapy. The greatest side-effects and the lowest level of compliance were observed in the complex treatment with antidepressants and atypical neuroleptics. The effect of side-effects on the compliance was dependent on their severity and subjective tolerability and, to a lesser extent, on the amount of drugs.

[Gender influence on the formation of alcohol preference and combination of alcohol with caffein in the condition of the long-term experiment].

The goal of the study was the investigation of ethanol and caffeine influence on the alcohol preference formation and behavior in male and female rats under the conditions of long-term experiment. For both sexes, the long consumption of caffeine, ethanol and their combination leads to the increase of alcohol consumption compared to the controls. The maximum ethanol consumption has been observed in the group with ethanol + caffeine intake. In these experiments, the behavioral activity has increased compared to the rats who received only alcohol and controls. The significant elevation of anxiety levels was noted in female, but not in male, rats in all experimental groups compared to the controls.

[Effect of individual peculiarities on formation of preference of ethanol in female and male Wistar rats].

Individual characteristics of animal behavior can serve a prognostic parameter of predisposition to use of alcohol. The goal of the work was to study dynamics of formation of preference of alcohol at early stages in the process of forced alcoholization in male and female rats as well as the accompanying changes in behavior parameters. For 3 months, the rats were submitted to the forced alcoholization with 10 % ethanol. Each week the rats were tested in the "two-glass trial". Individual peculiarities of all animals were evaluated prior to, after 6 weeks, and after the end of the experiment with aid of the "open field test" and "Suok-test". Results showed that the male rats demonstrating by the end of the experiment the significantly higher level of the alcohol preference, at the initial stages of the forced alcoholization demonstrated the significantly lower preference as compared with the remaining ones. These rats also showed the lower levels of the motor and exploratory activities before alcoholization as compared with control. On the contrary, the individuals that by the end of the experiment did not differ from control by the level of the alcohol preference demonstrated prior to alcoholization in the "Suok-test" the higher anxiety level. In female groups, no statistically significant differences were observed both in parameters of the motor and exploratory activities and in the anxiety level in both tests. Thus, in male rats, the prognostic parameter predicting formation of the abuse can serve the degree of alcohol preference at the initial stages.