Standardisation and Validation of Acute and Chronic Administration Ketamine at Different Doses to Produce Psychosis Like Behavioural Changes in Mice

Acute ketamine (50 and 100 mg/kg, i.p.) induced hyperlocomotor activity and reduced step-down latency in a passive avoidance test but was ineffective in the forced swim test. Chronic ketamine (50 and 100 mg/kg, i.p.) produced hyperlocomotor activity, reduced step-down latency, and enhanced immobility duration in the forced swim test. These behavioral changes persisted for 7 days after treatment. The findings suggest that chronic ketamine administration can produce behavioral changes useful for screening antipsychotic drugs.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Psychosis is a complex mental illness, characterised by positive, negative and cognitive symptoms. NMDA receptor antagonists have been established to induce behavioural as well as biochemical changes in rodents similar to psychotic patients. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effective dose and treatment period of ketamine to induce some behavioural changes. The results suggest that acute treatment of ketamine (50 and 100 mg/kg, i.p.) induced hyperlocomotor activity and reduced step down latency time in passive avoidance test, whereas in effective in forced swim test. Further, with the chronic administration of ketamine (50 and 100 mg/kg, i.p.) effective to produced hyperlocomotor activity, reduced the step down latency time in passive avoidance test and enhanced the immobility duration in forced swim test. Moreover, these behavioural changes persisted for 7 days after the treatment period. Thus, our findings suggest that the chronic administration of Ketamine (50 and 100 mg/kg, i.p.) potential to produce behavioural changes, would serve as an effective tool to screen antipsychotic drugs.