Effetti degli antidepressivi assunti durante la gestazione sui nascituri
Un interessante studio sulle conseguenze della terapia con due antidepressivi SSRI, la fluoxetina e l’escitalopram sugli adulti nati da madri che hanno assunto questi due farmaci durante la gravidanza, getta una luce sulle conseguenze della neurotrasmissione di questi soggetti.
Stefanie C Altieri, Hongyan Yang, Hannah J O’Brien, Hannah M Redwine, Damla Senturk, Julie G Hensler, Anne M Andrews. Perinatal vs. Genetic Programming of Serotonin States Associated with Anxiety. Neuropsychopharmacology, 2014
Received 27 August 2014; Revised 5 December 2014; Accepted 7 December 2014
Accepted article preview online 19 December 2014
ABSTRACT
Large numbers of women undergo antidepressant treatment during pregnancy; however, long-term consequences for their offspring remain largely unknown. Rodents exposed to serotonin transporter (SERT) inhibiting antidepressants during development show changes in adult emotion-like behavior. These changes have been equated with behavioral alterations arising from genetic reductions in SERT. Both models are highly relevant to humans yet they vary in their time frames of SERT disruption. We find that anxiety-related behavior and importantly, underlying serotonin neurotransmission diverge between the two models. In mice, constitutive loss of SERT causes life-long increases in anxiety-related behavior and hyperserotonemia. Conversely, early exposure to the antidepressant escitalopram (ESC; Lexapro®) results in decreased anxiety-related behavior beginning in adolescence, which is associated with adult serotonin system hypofunction in the ventral hippocampus. Adult behavioral changes resulting from early fluoxetine (Prozac®) exposure were different from those of ESC and although somewhat similar to SERT deficiency, were not associated with changes in hippocampal serotonin transmission in late adulthood. These findings reveal dissimilarities in adult behavior and neurotransmission arising from developmental exposure to different widely prescribed antidepressants that are not recapitulated by genetic SERT insufficiency. Moreover, they support a pivotal role for serotonergic modulation of anxiety-related behavior.
