Behavioural changes in the offspring of rats exposed to diazepam during gestation

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Abstract

Primiparous pregnant Sprague-Dawley dams were administered a single daily sc. injection of diazepam (0.1 and 1 mg/kg) or vehicle over gestation days 14–20. No differences in neonatal mortality and weight gain were found between the control and diazepam-exposed pups. Conversely, male pups prenatally treated with this benzodiazepine exhibited subtle behavioural alterations either during early postnatal life or during adulthood. In particular, a significant decrease in the locomotor activity of the diazepam-treated groups was found at the end of the second postnatal week (14–16 days). Furthermore, the administration of diazepam during gestation produced marked changes in the length of ultrasonic calls of rat pups removed from their nest. Finally, adult male rats (120 days of age) prenatally exposed to diazepam showed a notable impairment in copulatory activity as well as a significant decrease in the duration of ultrasonic (22 kHz) post-ejaculatory calls emitted during sexual behaviour. These findings suggest that late gestational exposure to diazepam induces both short- and long-term behavioural changes in rat offspring, changes characterized by altered activity patterns and emotional-motivational responsiveness to environmental challenges.

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Cited by (31)

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    Data for children tracked into adulthood were not available. Prenatal exposure on the last week of gestation was associated with deficits in learning, decreases in locomotor and exploratory activity (anxiety) and an increase in the acoustic startle response (attention) in adulthood (Cannizzaro et al., 2005); similar exposure impaired male sexual behavior (Cagiano et al., 1990), enhanced aggression (social behavior; Singh et al., 1998), and either increased or decreased OFT ambulation and tunnel-board exploratory activity (complementary measures of exploratory anxiety), and reduced zero-maze activity (anxiety) and social interactions (Lall and Sahoo, 1990; Singh et al., 1996; social behavior). Prenatal exposure decreased freezing behavior and improved performance in the active avoidance test and did not affect swimming navigation in adulthood (learning; Driscoll et al., 1995) but in another study induced significant deficits in acquisition and retention of a spatial discrimination learning test (Jaiswal and Bhattacharya, 1993).

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