Beijing Anding Hospital, Capital Medical University, 5 Ankang Alley, Beijing 100088, China.
Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2013;2013:107380. doi: 10.1155/2013/107380. Epub 2013 May 13.
Currently, antidepressants are the dominative treatment for depression, but they have limitations in efficacy and may even produce troublesome side effects. Electroacupuncture (EA) has been reported to have therapeutic benefits in the treatment of depressive disorders. The present study was conducted to determine whether EA could enhance the antidepressant efficacy of a low dose of citalopram (an SSRI antidepressant) in the chronic unpredictable stress-induced depression model rats. Here, we show that a combined treatment with 2 Hz EA and 5 mg/kg citalopram for three weeks induces a significant improvement in depressive-like symptoms as detected by sucrose preference test, open field test, and forced swimming test, whereas these effects were not observed with either of the treatments alone. Further investigations revealed that 2 Hz EA plus 5 mg/kg citalopram produced a remarkably increased expression of BDNF and its receptor TrkB in the hippocampus compared with those measured in the vehicle group. Our findings suggest that EA combined with a low dose of citalopram could produce greater therapeutic effects, thereby, predictive of a reduction in drug side effects.
目前，抗抑郁药是治疗抑郁症的主要方法，但它们在疗效上存在局限性，甚至可能产生麻烦的副作用。电针（EA）已被报道在治疗抑郁障碍方面具有治疗益处。本研究旨在确定电针对慢性不可预测应激诱导的抑郁模型大鼠中低剂量西酞普兰（一种 SSRI 抗抑郁药）的抗抑郁疗效是否有增强作用。在这里，我们表明，2 Hz EA 与 5 mg/kg 西酞普兰联合治疗 3 周可显著改善抑郁样症状，如蔗糖偏好测试、旷场测试和强迫游泳测试所示，而单独使用这些治疗方法则没有观察到这些效果。进一步的研究表明，与对照组相比，2 Hz EA 加 5 mg/kg 西酞普兰可显著增加海马中的 BDNF 及其受体 TrkB 的表达。我们的研究结果表明，电针结合低剂量西酞普兰可能产生更大的治疗效果，从而预测药物副作用的减少。
