The effect of amantadine on clomipramine induced sexual dysfunction in male rats.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:

Several studies have reported that Clomipramine has the ability to suppress male rat sexual behavior. Literature indicates that the activation of brain D(2) receptors causes facilitation of penile erection, and a number of reports have indicated dopamine's involvement in sexual function. Hence this study was undertaken to investigate the effect of Amantadine, a dopamine agonists on the Clomipramine induced sexual dysfunction.

METHODS:

The study subjects involved a total of 48 males and 48 females, 4 months old Sprague-Dawley albino rats, all housed in a group of six males and females separately in plexi glass cages in an acclimatized colony room (25±0.5(0)C) maintained on a 12/12 hr light/dark cycle. The male rats were randomly divided into four groups of 12 male rats each. Group I served as controls. Group II, III, and IV were treated with Amantadine (9 mg/kg body weight, p.o) 30 min, prior to the treatment with 13.5 mg/kg, 27 mg/Kg and 54 mg/Kg bodyweight p.o of Clomipramine respectively for 60 days. The control group received vehicle 1 ml / kg p.o. The sexual behavior of the male rats was observed to determine the following parameters: mount latency, intromission latency, ejaculation latency, post ejaculatory pause, and intromission frequency. As well as the sexual behavior; serum testosterone and histopathology of the testes were also investigated in this study.

RESULTS:

The results indicate that Amantadine in all aspects failed to antagonize Clomipramine induced sexual dysfunction in male rats. Even the sexual competence of male rats treated with ½ therapeutic dose (TD) of Clomipramine failed to regain their sexual competence in the presence of Amantadine. Testicular damage and decline in testosterone levels continued in the presence of Amantadine.

CONCLUSION:

Overall, the results suggest that Amantadine could not be a safe antidote to antagonize Clomipramine induced sexual dysfunction.

• Authors: Sheshadri Shekar Devaangam, Satyanarayana S, Eswar Kumar K, Vivek B, Velmurugan C, Ashok Kumar
• Journal: Oman medical journal (Oman Med J) Vol. 26 Issue 6 Pg. 404-9 (Nov 2011) ISSN: 2070-5204 [Electronic] Oman
• PMID: 22253948 (Publication Type: Journal Article)