The effects of dopaminergic/serotonergic reuptake inhibition on maternal behavior, maternal aggression, and oxytocin in the rat
Open accessAbstract
Studies using dopaminergic and serotonergic agonists or antagonists implicate involvement of these systems in various aspects of early maternal behavior and postpartum aggression towards an intruder in rats, both of which are associated with the presence of oxytocin in specific brain regions. It is unclear however, if or how long-term uptake inhibition of either neurotransmitter system alone or in combination, affects oxytocin system dynamics or maternal behavior/aggression. Pregnant women frequently take drugs (antidepressants, cocaine) that induce long-term reuptake inhibition of dopamine and/or serotonin, thus it is important to understand these effects on behavior and biochemistry. Rat dams were treated throughout gestation with amfonelic acid, fluoxetine, or a combination of both, to investigate effects of reuptake inhibition of dopamine and serotonin systems respectively, on maternal behavior, aggression and oxytocin. The more appetitive aspects of maternal behavior (nesting, licking, touching) and activity were increased by the low dose of amfonelic acid, high dose of fluoxetine, or the high dose combination more than other treatments. Aggression was decreased by amfonelic acid and somewhat increased by fluoxetine. Dopamine uptake inhibition appears to have a strong effect on hippocampal oxytocin levels, while receptor dynamics may be more strongly affected by serotonin uptake inhibition.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Systemically administered DA reuptake inhibitors stimulated maternal behaviour and reduced maternal aggression in Sprague-Dawley rats.
“while systemically administered DA reuptake inhibitors stimulated maternal behaviour and reduced maternal aggression (Johns et al., 2005).”
From Convergence of oxytocin and dopamine signalling in neuronal circuits: Insights into the neurobiology of social interactions across species (2024) · cites this paper as Johns et al., 2005
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet
References 76 · Cited by 78
- Authors
- Johns, J. M., Joyner, P. W., McMurray, M. S., Elliott, D. L., Hofler, V. E., Middleton, C. L., Knupp, K., Greenhill, K. W., Lomas, L. M., & Walker, C. H.
- Affiliations
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US)
- Corresponding author
- Johns, J.M.
- Venue
- Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2005-08
- Volume
- 81
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 769-785
- ISSN
- 0091-3057 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3110079
- OpenAlex
- W2023684915
- Cited by
- 78
- References
- 76
- Citations by year
- 2025: 5 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 1.78
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Carolina Digital Repository (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) (submittedVersion)
- UNC Libraries
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (DA R01-13283A1, R01DA013283)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum
- Keywords
- maternal behavior, maternal aggression, oxytocin, dopamine uptake inhibition, serotonin reuptake inhibition, amfonelic acid, fluoxetine, pregnancy, prenatal drug exposure, nest building, licking and grooming, hippocampus, antidepressants, cocaine
- MeSH terms
- Aggression, Animals, Behavior, Animal, Brain, Dose-Response Relationship, Drug, Drug Synergism, Female, Fluoxetine, Male, Maternal Behavior, Nalidixic Acid, Naphthyridines, Oxytocin, Pregnancy, Rats, Sprague-Dawley, Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors, Dopamine Uptake Inhibitors, Postpartum Period, Rats
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
