Comparison of the Effects of Hydro-Alcoholic Extract of Pistacia Atlantica kurdika and Fluvoxamine Drug on Depression in Male Rat Under Immobilization Stress

Nowadays, herbal products often have been used as an alternative or supplement to chemical drugs in the treatment or prevention of psychiatric diseases with low side effects and cost of treatment.
Objevtive: Therefore, in this study we compared the effects of fluvoxamine and hydro-alcoholic extract of Pistacia atlantica kurdika on the immobilization stress-induced depression in male rats.
In this experimental study, 30 adult male Wistar rats with the average weight of 175 g were randomly divided into five groups of six rats in each. Induction of immobilization stress was done using restrainer. In this experiment, the treatment of rats was assigned to 3 weeks with hydroalcoholic extract of pistachio in dose of 400 mg/kg and fluvoxamine drug in dose of 120 mg/kg using oral gavage. Tail suspension test for depression, Malondialdehyde (MDA) level and catalase activity of the homogenized hippocampus tissue, and blood glucose and corticosterone level were measured. The data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA and Tukey's test.
A significant increase was observed in the immobility time, malondialdehyde, corticosterone, blood sugar level, and decrease in the catalase enzyme activity and damage in tissue of hippocampus in the cas group. Whereas, there was a significant decrease in the immobility time and increase in catalase enzyme activity and decline in corticosterone, blood sugar and malondialdehyde and lack of hippocampal tissue damage in the group under pistachio extract treatment. Also, in the group under fluvoxamine treatment alone or concomitant use of drug with pistachio extract, we observed an increase the immobility time, decrease in Malondialdehyde, corticosterone and catalase enzyme activity. In addition, concomitant use of drug with pistachio extract caused a significant decrease in the blood glucose level.
The findings showed that the hydro-alcoholic extract of pistachio or fluvoxamine drug incidentally decrease the immobilization stress-induced depression and improve condition of antioxidant in the hippocampus tissue of the treated groups