Citation

Fragoso VM, Hoppe LY, Araújo-Jorge TC, Azevedo MJ, Campos JD, Cortez CM, Oliveira GM. Behav. Brain Res. 2015; 301: 110-118.

Affiliation

Laboratory of Cell Biology, Oswaldo Cruz Institute/FIOCRUZ, Av. Brasil 4365, 21045-900, Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Electronic address: gmoliveira@ioc.fiocruz.br.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.bbr.2015.12.010

PMID

26698401

Abstract

Aggression is defined as the act in which an individual intentionally harms or injures another of their own species. Antipsychotics are a form of treatment used in psychiatric routine. They have been used for decades in treatment of patients with aggressive behaviour. Haloperidol and risperidone promote the control of psychiatric symptoms, through their respective mechanisms of action. Experimental models are obtained by behavioural, genetic, and pharmacological manipulations, and use a reduced number of animals. In this context, we applied the model of spontaneous aggression (MSA), originating the presence of highly aggressive mice (AgR) when reassembled in adulthood. We administered haloperidol and risperidone in escalating doses, for ten consecutive days. Using positive and negative control groups, we evaluated the effectiveness of these drugs and the reversal of the aggressive behaviour, performing the tail suspension test (TST) and open field test (OFT) on 10th day of treatment and 10 days after its discontinuation. The results showed that both antipsychotic drugs were effective in AgR and reversed the aggressive phenotype, reducing the number of attacks by AgR and the extent of lesions in the subordinate mice (AgD) exposed to the pattern of aggressive behaviour (PAB) of the aggressors. This conclusion is based on the reduction in the animals' motor and exploratory activity, and on the reversal of patterns of aggressive behaviour. The association between the MSA and experiments with other therapeutic protocols and different antipsychotics can be an important methodology in the study of aggressive behavior in psychiatric patients.

Language: en