Prevention by diazepam of adverse effects of maternal restraint stress on postnatal development and learning in the rat

Abstract

Rats on days 12--14 of pregnancy were treated with restraint stress alone (9h daily), restraint stress plus diazepam (1 mg/kg, twice daily), diazepam alone, or left as untreated controls. Postnatal development and behaviour was assessed on a wide-ranging battery of tests. Offspring of mothers subjected to restraint stress alone were significantly retarded on a number of developmental measures including growth, ear-opening, cliff avoidance response, auditory startle response and mid-air righting reflex. When adult these offspring also showed significantly impaired learning ability in a swimming maze. However, the rate of development and learning ability in the restraint plus diazepam or diazepam alone groups was comparable to or slightly advanced of that in untreated controls. It is concluded that concurrent administration of a low dose of the tranquiliser diazepam during restraint stress prevents the adverse postnatal effects of maternal restraint stress.

Prenatal Diazepam Exposure Affects β‐Adrenergic Receptors in Brain Regions of Adult Rat Offspring

“…No effect on litter size, length of gestation, or postnatal development of body weight of the progeny was seen. These results agree well with other studies in which comparable doses of diazepam were used (Barlow et al, 1979;Shore et al, 1983). Reduced litter size was observed only after giving rats the very high dose of 100 mg/kg of diazepam twice a day (Massotti et al, 1980).…”

“…The only significant effect of prenatal diazepam exposure was the reduced mortality by PD 10. It is relevant that Barlow et al (1979) pointed out that some consequences of severe prenatal maternal stress to the progeny may be prevented by concurrent diazepam therapy to the dam. Daily injections may well involve such a stress.…”

Maternal psychological stress and distress as predictors of low birth weight, prematurity and intrauterine growth retardation

“…Animal studies have demonstrated that exposing animals to stressors during pregnancy is associated with lower birth or foetal weights (Calhoun, 1962;Geber, 1966;Smith et al, 1975;Barlow et al, 1979;Beckhardt & Ward, 1983;Anderson et al, 1985;Pinto & Shetty, 1995). However, the impact of psychological factors in the human offspring has been examined in detail, relatively more recently.…”

Risk-Benefit Decision Making for Treatment of Depression During Pregnancy

“…Stress (without exposure to chemical agents) can cause behavioral teratogenicity. A study in which groups of pregnant rats were treated with restraint stress alone, restraint stress plus diazepam, diazepam alone, and no medication yielded interesting results (22). The offspring of mothers subjected to restraint stress alone had significant delays on a number of developmental measures, such as growth and reflexes.…”

“…In an earlier article (5) we critically reviewed data from recent studies related to reproductive outcomes for pregnant women exposed to antidepressant treatment. Four prospective investigations (22)(23)(24)(25) have provided new information about the effects of antidepressant exposure. This information must be incorporated in the outcomes considered in the decision-making model we propose (Figure 1).…”