Table 2.
Summary of rodent studies investigating effects of SSRIs on maternal brain and behavior. 5-HIAA = 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid, 5-HT = serotonin, BLA = basolateral amygdala, DG = dentate gyrus of the hippocampus, Dnmt3a = DNA (cytosine-5)-methyltransferase 3A, HPC = hippocampus, i.p.= intraperitoneal, NAc = nucleus accumbens, PD = postpartum day, mPFC = medial prefrontal cortex, s.c.= subcutaneous.
| SSRI administration | Treatment | Species | Findings | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fluoxetine (2–8 mg/kg/day; water) | GD1-GD20 | Rat | ↑ touch/sniff of pups,↑ hovering over pups (low dose only), ↓ nest building, ↑maternal aggression | Johns et al., 2005 |
| Fluoxetine (5 mg/kg/day; minipump) | PD 1–28 | Rat | ↑kyphosis, ↓nest building | Pawluski et al., 2012 |
| -no effects on DG cell proliferation | ||||
| ↑ DG immature neurons*, no effect on cell proliferation | ||||
| Fluoxetine (5 or 10 mg/kg;i.p.) | PD4, 6, 8 | Rat | ↓ pup retrieval | Yang et al., 2015 |
| Fluoxetine (10 mg/kg/day; i.p.) | PD2–23 | Rat | ↑ kyphosis*, ↓ passive nursing, ↓nest building ↓ intermediate,↑ postmitotic immature neurons in DG | Workman et al., 2016 |
| Fluoxetine (5 mg/kg/day; minipump) | PD 1–21 | Rat | ↓5-HIAA/5-HT in HPC, ↓Dnmt3a in HPC | Gemmel et al., 2016 |
| -prevents gestational stress effects on 5-HIAA/5- HT and synaptophysin in PFC | ||||
| -no effects on DG immature neurons | ||||
| Fluoxetine (25 mg/kg/day; water) | GD4-GD18 | Mouse | no effects on maternal behavior | Kiryanova et al., 2016 |
| Citalopram (10 mg/kg/day;minipump) | PD1-PD23 | Rat | -prevents gestational stress-induced structural alterations of neurons in the NAc shell and mPFC | Haim et al., 2016 |
| -no effect on NAc core or BLA | ||||
| Fluoxetine (10 mg/kg/day; s.c.) | GD1-GD21a | Rat | ↓pup retrieval in female offspring as mothers | Svirsky et al., 2016 |
| Fluoxetine (50 mg/kg/day;water) | Postpartum | Mouse | ↓nest building in compulsive-like lactating mice | Mitra et al., 2017 |
| Sertraline (20 mg/kg/day; i.p.) | PreGD- GD21 | Rat | ↓ time nursing, ↑time off the nest* | Kott et al., 2018 |
| Fluoxetine (10 mg/kg/day;i.p.) | PD2-PD25 | Rat | ↑ time nursing, ↓time off the nest* | Gobinath et al., 2018 |
| ↓ DG immature neurons | ||||
| Fluoxetine (1 0mg/kg/day; biscuit) | GD10-PD28 | Rat | ↑ nursing only on PD4–6 | Gemmel et al., 2018 |
| ↑ DG immature neurons |
*
only in group also treated with high levels of corticosterone or restraint stressed
a
mothers in the study exposed in utero