Pharmacological inhibition of the lateral habenula improves depressive-like behavior in an animal model of treatment resistant depression

C Winter; B Vollmayr; A Djodari-Irani; J Klein; A Sartorius

doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2010.07.034

Pharmacological inhibition of the lateral habenula improves depressive-like behavior in an animal model of treatment resistant depression

Behav Brain Res. 2011 Jan 1;216(1):463-5. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2010.07.034. Epub 2010 Aug 3.

Authors

C Winter¹, B Vollmayr, A Djodari-Irani, J Klein, A Sartorius

Affiliation

¹ Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Technical University Dresden, Dresden, Germany.

PMID: 20678526
DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2010.07.034

Abstract

Identifying new treatment approaches for treatment resistant depression (TRD) is an important topic for translational psychiatry. Functional inhibition of the lateral habenula (LHb) has recently been claimed to offer such an option for TRD. Rats which are bred for high susceptibility to develop learned helplessness provide a genetic model for TRD. We used the gamma-aminobutyric acid agonist muscimol to inhibit the LHb in Sprague-Dawley rats with congenital learned helplessness (cLH). Stereotactic pharmacological inhibition of the LHb exerted antidepressive effects in treatment resistant cLH rats.

MeSH terms

Analysis of Variance
Animals
Depressive Disorder / drug therapy*
Depressive Disorder / physiopathology
Disease Models, Animal
GABA-A Receptor Agonists / pharmacology
GABA-A Receptor Agonists / therapeutic use
Habenula / drug effects*
Habenula / physiopathology
Helplessness, Learned*
Muscimol / pharmacology
Muscimol / therapeutic use*
Neurons / drug effects*
Rats
Rats, Sprague-Dawley

Substances

GABA-A Receptor Agonists
Muscimol