Global Experts Meeting on
Psychiatry and Mental Health

Biography:

Abstract:

Objective To observe the effects of acupuncture at Sanyinjiao(SP6) and Baihui (GV20) on spontaneous activity, impulsivity, learning-memorial ability, and monoamine neurotransmitter dopamine (DA), noradrenalin (NE) and 5-hydroxytrypamine (5-HT) contents in prefrontal cortex of spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) as a model of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) rats, so as to study its mechanism underlying improment of ADHD. Methods 4-week-old SHR rats were randomly divided into the model group, methylphenidate group, acupuncture group, the same age WKY young rats were selected as the normal control group, 10 rats in each group. Acupuncture was applied to Baihui (GV20) and Sanyinjiao(SP6) of SHR rats in acupuncture group for 15 min, once daily for 4 weeks. The rats in MPH group was gavaged with MPH (ritalin) at a dose of 2 mg/kg/day, Rats were treated for 4 weeks in the dark-phase. Open field test (OFT), elevated plus maze (EPM) and novel object recognition test (NORT)were conducted to evaluate the spontaneous activity, impulsivity and learning-memorial ability of rats individually at the end of treatment. and contents of DA, NE and 5-HT in PFC were detected by HPLC. Results Compared with the normal control group, all of the behavior parameters of the model group rats were significantly higher(P<0.05), the contents of DA, NE and 5-HT in PFC of the model group rats were lower than that of normal control group(P<0.05). Compared with the model group, acupuncture group had shorter movement distance, less rearing and grooming activities in the OFT, reduced percentage of the times entering the open arms and staying duration in the total period in the EPM, and the elevated preference index in the NORT after receiving four weeks treatment(P<0.05), and the contents of NE and 5-HT in PFC of the acupuncture group rats were higher than that of control group(P<0.05), but there was no significant difference in DA levels between the two groups(P>0.05). Conclusion Acupuncture could relieve the spontaneous activity and impulsivity, improve learning-memorial ability of ADHD model rats, which may be related to elevated NE and 5-HT levels in the PFC.