Psychiatry Research
Volume 137, Issue 1 , Pages 113-121, 15 November 2005

Chronic repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation is antidepressant but not anxiolytic in rat models of anxiety and depression

  • Garth A. Hargreaves

      Affiliations

    • School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 2052, Australia
    • Neuropsychiatric Institute, Prince of Wales Hospital, Barker Street, Randwick, NSW 2031, Australia
    • ,
  • Iain S. McGregor

      Affiliations

    • School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney, 2006, Australia
    • ,
  • Perminder S. Sachdev

      Affiliations

    • School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 2052, Australia
    • Neuropsychiatric Institute, Prince of Wales Hospital, Barker Street, Randwick, NSW 2031, Australia
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Neuropsychiatric Institute, Prince of Wales Hospital, Barker Street, Randwick, NSW 2031, Australia. Tel.: +61 2 93823763; fax +61 2 93823774.

Received 15 February 2005; received in revised form 17 June 2005; accepted 15 July 2005.

Abstract 

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has been proposed as a treatment for depression and anxiety disorders. While the antidepressant effect has been modelled in animals, there have been few attempts to examine a possible anxiolytic effect of repetitive TMS (rTMS) in animal models. We administered 18 days of rTMS to male Sprague-Dawley rats. On days 10 through 18, rats were tested in several anxiety models (social interaction, emergence, elevated plus-maze, and predator odor avoidance) and in the forced swim test. No group differences were apparent on any of the anxiety models, while TMS produced an antidepressant effect in the forced swim test. Interestingly, on day 1 of the forced swim test, the home cage control group displayed increased swimming behaviour compared with sham-treated animals, suggesting an observable level of stress may have accompanied sham treatment. The results from the forced swim test suggested that TMS had modest antidepressant properties, but it did not show anxiolytic properties in the models examined. The study also suggested that stress associated with handling should be taken into account in the interpretation of TMS studies in animals.

Keywords: TMS, Forced swim, Social interaction, Elevated plus-maze, Predator odor avoidance, Sprague-Dawley

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PII: S0165-1781(05)00207-6

doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2005.07.008

Psychiatry Research
Volume 137, Issue 1 , Pages 113-121, 15 November 2005

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