Rajesh Komma

The main objective was to evaluate antidepressant effect of diltiazem in rats. Results of numerous pre-clinical studies have demonstrated that calcium channel blockers have an antidepressant activity & a potential for interaction with standard antidepressants. The present study is designed to test this hypothesis in rats .Rats were assigned to six groups,  one group is the control group (distilled water) , three groups are ,imipramine (10 mg/kg), venlafaxine (10 mg/kg), and diltiazem (10mg/kg) alone and other two groups are combination of diltiazem with imipramine, and diltiazem with venlafaxine. To know the antidepressant effect, forced swim model had been used, the immobility period of all the groups are compared with each other  after giving drugs for 7 days Diltiazem produced significant antidepressant effect either alone or in combination with imipramine. The efficacy of diltiazem (10mg/kg) was comparable to that of imipramine (10mg/kg) and venlafaxine (10mg/kg) results of the present study indicate antidepressant like activity of diltiazem

  To compare the effect of mentat and Donepezil was on working memory in rats. The rats were trained for conditioned avoidance response by using Cook’s pole climbing apparatus. Rats trained for CAR received scopolamine (hydrobromide) in a dose of 0.5mg/kg by intraperitoneal route before administration of study drugs. This is known to produce amnesia which will be used to evaluate the effect on learning and memory of study drugs. Donepezil was given in a dose of 0.32mg/kg by intraperitoneal route and mentat was given in a dose of 200mg/kg by oral route for eight days in the animals after training for conditioned avoidance response. Data was analysed by the chi-square test. Findings show that administration of single dose of scopolamine 20 minutes before the test run on the apparatus causes transient amnesia daily for resulting in disruption of the retention of CAR. Mentat and donepezil significantly increased the retention of condition avoidance response in comparison to scopolamine. However there was no significant statistical difference in the increase in the retention of CAR in mentat or donepezil given alone, but the combination of the two drugs showed statistically significant increase in the retention of CAR than either of these drugs alone. Results from this study provide good platform to conduct clinical studies to assess the benefit of combining mentat with donepezil when given for a longer period of time. Key Words: Working memory, mentat, donepezil, scopolamine, conditioned avoidance response.