A study on evaluation of antidepressant effect of Imipramine adjunct with Ashwagandha and Bramhi

Introduction: Depressive disorders increases the risks of self-harm or even suicide in patients. Indigenous drugs are being tried to treat such patient along with conventional antidepressant drugs. Objective: To investigate the antidepressant action of Ashwagandha and Bramhi  and also to confirm its efficacy in the behavioural despair animal model of depression. Material and methods: Normal saline as control (5ml/kg), imipramine as standard (16,32,64 mg/kg) and ashwagandha (50,100,150 mg/kg), bramhi (20,40,80 mg/kg) as test drugs were introduced to the albino rats weighing between 200-250gm for 2 weeks, 1 hr before electric shock in Learned helplessness test (LHT) and swimming in Forced swimming test (FST). Effects of individual drugs as well as their combination were evaluated. Result: Avoidance response, escape failure and immobility period in case of imipramine and ashwagandha showed highly significant (p<0.01) result on individual use.  There was no significant result in case of Bramhi used alone except in escape failure and immobility period (FST), where at higher doses it showed significant (p<0.01) result . But combination of Bramhi and ashwagandha in low doses with low dose of imipramine gave a highly significant result (p<0.01) in all the parameters. Conclusion: Ashwagandha had significant antidepressant action, but bramhi had not when used alone. Combination of these two indigenous drugs with imipramine showed high efficacy in animal model