Acute and chronic treatment with selective serotonin uptake inhibitors in mice: effects on nociceptive sensitivity and response to 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine.
Pain March 1, 1988 Per Kristian Eide, Kjell Hole 21 citations
Acute doses of serotonin-uptake inhibitors (zimelidine, alaproclate, chlorimipramine) produced pain relief in mice on the hot-plate test but not the tail-flick test. After chronic treatment and withdrawal, tail-flick latencies shortened—indicating increased pain sensitivity—at multiple time points for each drug. Hot-plate response temperatures were slightly lowered only after chronic zimelidine. The drugs did not alter the response to a serotonin-receptor agonist after a single dose, but after withdrawal of chronic treatment, the response increased in the tail-flick test only. The authors conclude that acute and chronic treatment with these drugs modulate pain differently, and that chronic treatment leads to supersensitivity of spinal serotonin receptors, with test-dependent effects possibly due to different serotonin-receptor subtypes.