Investigation of antidepressant-like effects of dipyrone using forced swimming test [Dipironun antidepresan-benzeri etkisinin zorunlu yüzdürme testiyle araştırılması]

Dipyrone is an analgesic-antipyretic drug with especially COX-3 inhibition on central prostaglandin system, proven effects on opiatergic and cannabinoid systems, cytokine levels, TRP channels and descending serotonergic-noradrenergic pathways. The functional roles of all these mechanisms have been established in mood disorders. It is known that pain and depression are frequently seen together. In the light of these information in our study we aimed to investigate whether dipyrone has an antidepressant-like effect and an antidepressant-medication-enhancing feature. Forced swimming test was utilized to measure depression-like effects of dipyrone using male mice. Immobility time of the animals was considered indicative of the depression-like effect on animals which were floated for six minutes in cylinder-shaped glass containers. The reduction in the duration of immobility with the drugs used was interpreted as an antidepressant-like effect. In the experiments dipyrone was administered via intraperitone-al route at doses of 150, 300 and 450 mg/kg and fluoxetine 20 mg/kg by oral gavage. It was observed that the immobility time of the mice in which all doses of dipyrone were administered decreased significantly when compared with the control group. The effect of 150 mg/kg doses of dipyrone was determined to be the same with fluoxetine. When the two drugs were used together, the effects of the drugs did not differ from using the drugs individually. In this study, it was determined that dipyrone showed antidepressant-like effects comparable to fluoxetine, and when both drugs were used together the effect of fluoxetine in forced swimming test did not change. All these findings suggest that dipyrone has an antidepressant-like effect. Antidepressant like effects of dipyrone in comparison with other drugs should be investigated with further testing. It is thought that this finding will contribute further to the treatment protocols of cases coursing with depression and pain. © 2017, Logos Medical Publishing. All rights reserved