Prevention of learned helplessness: in vivo correlation with cortical serotonin

Learned helplessness (LH) is prevented by pretreatment with acute benzodiazepines (BDZs), subchronic tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs), or escapable stress (ES). We have investigated the role of serotonin (5-HT) in LH prevention by these three prevention paradigms, using microdialysis to measure in vivo 5-HT release in frontal cortex (FC) after LH testing. Rats receiving pretreatment before inescapable stress with any of the three methods of prevention--BDZs, TCAs, or ES--showed escape behavior in the shuttle-box test for LH comparable to naive unstressed controls. K(+)-stimulated 5-HT release in all three groups receiving pretreatment was also similar to naive unstressed controls. Rats receiving saline before inescapable stress showed significantly more LH behavior in the shuttle-box task and had significantly lower 5-HT release as well. This suggests that LH correlates with a significant decrease in intracellular releasable 5-HT in FC, and that three different techniques for LH prevention, acute BDZs, subchronic TCAs, and ES all similarly prevent this 5-HT depletion.