Quetiapine prevents anhedonia induced by acute or chronic stress

The role of atypical antipsychotics as add-on treatments and as primary mood stabilizers in different phases of bipolar disorder is an important current research area. Although in bipolar patients the main therapeutic indication of quetiapine (QTP) is the management of acute mania, several observations suggest that this agent may exert antidepressant as well as antimanic effects. However, in our knowledge, there are no preclinical studies supporting this hypothesis. Thus, the main goal of the present work was to evaluate the putative antidepressant effect of QTP (0.4, 2.0, or 10 mg/kg/day), in comparison to amitriptyline (AMI) (2 or 5 mg/kg/day), in rats exposed to acute or chronic stress. The administration of QTP, 2 mg/kg/day, prevents the onset of anhedonia in rats exposed to a 6-week chronic mild stress (CMS) protocol. The effect of QTP has a slow onset, beginning at week 5, and causes a complete recovery from anhedonia. In this respect, the effect of QTP is similar to that obtained after chronic administration of AMI 2 or 5 mg/kg/day. Our findings also indicate that a 6-week administration of QTP, 2 or 10 mg/kg/day, has protective effects against the onset of anhedonia caused by the exposure to an acute subthreshold stressful event in rats that have previously experienced the CMS procedure. The results suggest that QTP is able to prevent both the transient mood depression caused by acute stress and the long-lasting anhedonic state induced by exposure, over a period of weeks, to a variety of unpredictable mild stressors.