Antidepressant-induced anti-immobility effects have been assessed in animals exposed or not to a pretest session using the forced swimming test. Desipramine, maprotiline, mianserine (15 and 30 mg/kg), nomifensine (2.5 and 5 mg/kg), d-amphetamine (1 and 2 mg/kg) and muscimol (1 and 2 mg/kg), unlike imipramine (15 and 30 mg/kg), LY-171555 (0.1 and 0.2 mg/kg) and scopolamine (0.5 and 0.1 mg/kg), did not reduce immobility time in rats which had not received the pretest session. On the other hand, all of the drugs tested reduced immobility time in rats exposed to a pretest session. In addition, the degree of antiimmobility effects of desipramine (20 mg/kg) and nomifensine (5 mg/kg) increased proportionally with the level of water (0, 4, 15 and 30 cm) to which animals were exposed at the time of pretest. Furthermore, desipramine reduced immobility time in rats pre-exposed to types of stress different from forced swimming, cold, restraint or foot-shock. All drugs were injected intraperitoneally three times, 24, 5 and 1 h before testing. The present findings suggest that a stressful pretest session may reveal pharmacological properties of antidepressants in the forced swimming test. This is also substantiated by the fact that diazepam (2.5 and 5 mg/kg) administered 30 min before the swimming pretest antagonized the anti-immobility effect of 15 mg/kg desipramine.
Viqualine dihydrochloride is a new molecule, which possesses strong serotonin reuptake inhibition properties and, at the same time, diazepam-like actions, such as [3H]-diazepam-binding inhibition and antipunishment effect. The drug was administered double-blindly to 10 patients suffering from major depression resistant to previous treatments with tricyclics. The comparison group (10 patients) received placebo. Lorazepam (10 mg/day) was also given to both groups. Viqualine proved to be significantly superior to placebo in the 4th week of treatment on all the three rating scales which were used. Tolerability of viqualine was good both objectively and on subjective grounds.
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