Articles

  • the Korean Society for Brain and Neural Sciences

Article

Original Article

Exp Neurobiol 2013; 22(1): 18-22

Published online March 30, 2013

https://doi.org/10.5607/en.2013.22.1.18

© The Korean Society for Brain and Neural Sciences

Memantine Reverses Social Withdrawal Induced by Ketamine in Rats

Ezequiel Uribe1,2*, José Landaeta1, Richard Wix1 and Antonio Eblen1

1Laboratorio de Neurofisiología, Escuela De Ciencias Biomédicas y Tecnológicas Dr. Guillermo Mujica Sevilla, Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad de Carabobo, Valencia, 2Hospital Dr. Rafael González Plaza, Departamento de Neuropsiquiatría. INSALUD, Gobernación del Estado Carabobo. Edo. Carabobo 2001, Venezuel

Correspondence to: *To whom correspondence should be addressed.
TEL: 58-241-871-2437, FAX: 58-412-482-4444
e-mail: ezequiel.uribe@hotmail.com; jcuriven@hotmail.com

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of memantine on schizophrenia-like symptoms in a ketamine-induced social withdrawal model in rats. We examined therapeutic effects of memantine, an NMDA antagonist, and haloperidol, a classic antipsychotic drug, on this behavioral model. Administration of memantine (10 or 15 mg·kg-1) significantly reduced ketamine-induced social withdrawal, and this effect was more effective than that of haloperidol (0.25 mg·kg-1) by restoring the social interaction between rats with no modification in general motor activity. These results suggest that memantine could have a therapeutic potential for schizophrenia.

Keywords: experimental psychosis, ketamine, NMDA, haloperidol, social interaction test