Sedation and disruption of maternal motivation underlie the disruptive effects of antipsychotic treatment on rat maternal behavior

Changjiu Zhao, Ming Li

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

29 Scopus citations

Abstract

The behavioral mechanisms underlying antipsychotic-induced maternal behavior deficits were examined in the present study. Different groups of postpartum rats were treated with haloperidol (0.1 mg/kg), clozapine (10.0 mg/kg), chlordiazepoxide (5.0 mg/kg, an anxiolytic) or vehicle (0.9% saline) on Days 4 and 6 postpartum and their maternal behaviors were tested under either pup-separation (e.g. pups were removed from their mothers for 4 h before testing) or no-pup-separation condition. Maternal behavior and drug-induced sedation were further tested for 3 days from Day 8 to 12 postpartum. Results show that pup-separation, which putatively increases maternal motivation, did significantly shorten clozapine-elongated pup approach latency, increase pup licking and nursing but fail to reverse the deficits in pup retrieval and nest building in the lactating rats treated with haloperidol and clozapine. Repeated haloperidol treatment produced a progressively enhanced disruption on pup retrieval and nest building and an attenuated sedation. In contrast, clozapine showed a progressively diminished disruption on pup retrieval and a concomitantly diminished sedative effect. Based on these findings, we suggest that antipsychotic drugs disrupt active maternal responses at least in part by suppressing maternal motivation, and drug-induced sedation also contributes to this disruptive effect, especially with clozapine.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)147-156
Number of pages10
JournalPharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior
Volume92
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2009

Keywords

  • Antipsychotic drug
  • Maternal behavior
  • Pup-separation
  • Repeated antipsychotic treatment
  • Sedation
  • Sensitization
  • Tolerance

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biochemistry
  • Toxicology
  • Pharmacology
  • Clinical Biochemistry
  • Biological Psychiatry
  • Behavioral Neuroscience

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