The Effect of Long-Term Pregabalin Administration on Memory of Rat in Object Recognition Task

Pregabalin is used as an adjunctive therapy in partial seizure, fibromyalgia, neuropathic pain, and generalized anxiety disorders. This study was designed to determine the effects of pregabalin on memory of rat using object recognition task (ORT) method.

 Male wistar rats were divided into 4 groups (n = 7), and were injected 10, 30, or 100 mg/kg/day of pregabalin or normal saline for 28 days. For evaluation of memory, animals underwent ORT during two 3-minute trials with an one-hour interval to explore similar and similar or different objects. For this reason, the discrimination (d2) and recognition (R) indices, as well as the frequency of new object exploration (f), were compared in the second period of exposure (T2). The P-values of less than 0.05 were considered as statistically significant.

 Administration of pregabalin with the dose of 10, 30, or 100 mg/kg/day for 28 days significantly reduced the d2 (P < 0.050, P < 0.010, and P < 0.001, respectively) and R (P < 0.010, P < 0.001, and P < 0.001, respectively) indices, and frequency of exploration (P < 0.050, P < 0.050, and P < 0.001, respectively) in the T2 trials compared to the control group. 100 mg/kg of pregabalin showed more decrease in these factors compared to the dose of 10 mg/kg (P < 0.050, P < 0.001, and P < 0.050, respectively).

 The findings of this study indicate that long-term administration of different doses of pregabalin disrupts cognitive memory to new object in rats. The memory decline follows a dose-dependent pattern.