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Memantine reverses social withdrawal induced by ketamine in rats
Ezequiel Uribe1, José Landaeta, Richard Wix
1Laboratorio de Neurofisiología, Escuela De Ciencias Biomédicas y Tecnológicas Dr. Guillermo Mujica Sevilla, Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad de Carabobo, Valencia, Venezuela. ; Hospital Dr. Rafael González Plaza, Departamento de Neuropsiquiatría. INSALUD, Gobernación del Estado Carabobo. Edo. Carabobo 2001, Venezuela.
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.

