Antistress II possesses antidepressant effect and improves the recognition memory while Antistress I doesn't demonstrate any of the above-described effects.

Background: Antidepressants have been found to possess antinociceptive and analgesic properties and are prescribed in the treatment of chronic pain. Aim: To evaluate the antinociceptive properties of escitalopram after a single administration. Materials and methods: Forty Wistar rats were used in the study. They were divided into 5 groups (n=8) treated with saline solution (control group), metamizole (150 mg/kg b.w.), escitalopram (5, 10 and 20 mg/kg b.w.) intraperitoneally. The nociceptive tests we used employed thermal (hot plate and plantar test), mechanical (analgesimeter) and chemical (formalin test) stimuli. Criteria for analgesic effect were increased latency in hot plate, plantar test, analgesimeter and decreased paw licking time in formalin test. Results: The reference analgesic metamizole showed significant analgesic effect in all tests excluding the first phase with formalin. Escitalopram in doses of 5 and 20 mg/kg b.w. increased paw withdrawal latency in analgesimeter at 2 hours compared to control. Escitalopram in a dose of 5 mg/kg b.w. increased the duration of the stay on the hot plate at 1 hour, while doses of 10 and 20 mg/kg b.w. significantly increased this indicator at 1 and 3 hours in comparison to the saline treated group. In the plantar test, escitalopram in all used doses significantly increased the nociceptive response latency compared to control. A dose of 5 mg/kg b.w. decreased hind paw licking time during phase 1 of the formalin test, whereas doses of 10 and 20 mg/kg b.w. decreased phase 2 licking time compared to the control group. Conclusion: The antidepressant escitalopram has analgesic properties but they are not dose- or time-dependent.

Background: Anxiety disorders are an important not only medical, but also social problem, affecting approx. 300 million people worldwide in 2019. Medications used in the treatment of anxiety are associated with many adverse reactions, which explains the increased use of herbal products as anxiolytics. Methods: An anxiolytic activity of Satureja montana, rosmarinic acid and carvacrol after 14-day long administration on an animal model of acute stress was studied. For measurement of anxiolytic effect elevated plus maze, social interaction and Vogel tests were provided as well as examination of locomotor activity. Results: The dry extract of Satureja montana at both tested doses significantly increased locomotor activity as well as the time spent in the social recognition, compared to the control groups. The extract reduced the time in the closed arms and the proportion of entries into open arms to total entries and increased the time in the open arms of elevated plus maze compared to the positive control group. Likewise, rosmarinic acid and carvacrol increased significantly the time spent with a new congener in the social interaction test. Both compounds reduced the ratio of entries into open arms to total entries similarly to the dry extract of Satureja montana. Only rosmarinic acid increased the time in the open arms and reduced the time in the closed arms. Conclusions: Satureja montana at both experimental doses exerted a significant anxiolytic activity in almost all the tests employed for evaluating anxious behavior. Carvacrol and rosmarinic acid showed a moderate anxiolytic effect.

The main symptoms of schizophrenia are categorized as positive, negative, and cognitive. Cognitive impairments do not generally respond to antipsychotics. Cariprazine is a novel antipsychotic conceived with the idea that high affinity for D3 receptors may elicit a favorable response in the management of cognitive deficits. We evaluated the pro-cognitive properties of 14-day long pre-treatment with cariprazine (0.25, 0.5, and 1 mg/kg b.w. intraperitoneally) in experimental rodent models with scopolamine-induced memory impairment employing novel object recognition test (NORT), T-maze, Y-maze, and passive avoidance tasks (step-through and step-down). Statistical analysis was performed with One Way ANOVA. In NORT cariprazine increased the recognition index. In T-maze and Y-maze cariprazine increased the working memory index as well as the percentage of spontaneous alternation. Cariprazine improved learning and memory in both short-term and long-term memory retention tests in step-down and step-through tasks. Cariprazine improves learning, recognition, and spatial memory in rats with scopolamine-induced memory impairment. Cariprazine’s beneficial effect on cognition is likely due to its affinity for D3 receptors, as well as agonism at 5-HT1A receptors. Most probably, the cognitive-enhancing properties of cariprazine are the result of integrated modulation in the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex.

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