Paroxetine effects on morphine analgesic tolerance in rats

To alleviate different pain intensities, morphine administration has been extensively used. However, prolonged administration of morphine leads to a progressive decline of its analgesic effect which limits their overall utility. Morphine tolerance is considered as a challenging issue for the treatment of both acute and chronic pain. We conducted this study in rats to investigate the effect of paroxetine on morphine tolerance when used preemptively or after morphine tolerance had developed.

Male Wistar rats (weight 250-300 g, n=10) were used to evaluate the effects of paroxetine on tolerance to morphine. In order to induce tolerance, daily intraperitoneal injection of morphine (7 mg/kg) was done. After tolerance induction, a group of animals received intraperitoneal injection of 10 mg/kg paroxetine 30 min prior to each morphine dose. In another trial, to investigate the potential of paroxetine to prevent tolerance to morphine, animals were pretreated with 10 mg/kg paroxetine 30 min before morphine administration. In the control groups, 10 mL/kg of saline was injected. The behavioral test (tail-flick test) was done for all groups.

Our data showed that paroxetine significantly reversed tolerance to morphine when used after tolerance induction (p<0.001). However, administration of paroxetine before occurrence of tolerance had no effect.

We conclude that paroxetine could decrease tolerance to morphine when used after the occurrence of morphine tolerance, while it was not able to prevent morphine tolerance when administered preemptively.

IRIB.SBMU.MSP.REC.1394.098.