Archival ReportSite-Specific Antidepressant Effects of Repeated Subconvulsive Electrical Stimulation: Potential Role of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor
Section snippets
Experimental Design
The experimental design is represented in Figure 1. Animals intended for the SCES experiments (real or sham) underwent surgery to implant electrodes before the initiation of the CMS protocol. After completion of the 4-week CMS protocol, either ECT or SCES treatment (active or sham; n = 10–14/group) was performed for 10 days. Subsequently, animals underwent behavioral tests during a 3-week period in the following sequence: sucrose preference, home-cage locomotion, exploration, forced swim test,
Sucrose Preference
The CMS induced significant reductions in sucrose preference relative to the control groups (Figure 2), as described previously (19). A comparison between sucrose preference scores, measured in the ECT experimental groups revealed a significant group effect [F(2,38) = 5.28, p = .0062; Figure 2A). Post hoc analysis showed that sucrose preference was significantly decreased in sham-treated CMS animals relative to non-CMS control subjects, whereas ECT significantly increased sucrose preference in
Discussion
Electroconvulsive therapy is a very effective antidepressant treatment but incorporates major drawbacks, such as the need for general anesthesia, and an accompanied generalized seizure, resulting in undesirable cognitive side-effects. In this study we found that repeated subconvulsive localized stimulation of reward-related brain sites can induce comparable antidepressant and neurochemical effects in an animal model. The impaired sucrose preference induced by CMS, which is considered a measure
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Drs. Gersner and Toth contributed equally to this study.