Antidepressant

ABSTRACTThe third leading cause of death is stroke, mainly occurred in patients with 50 years or more and it is described as a sudden loss of blood flow to the brain that leads to irreversible tissue damage caused by thrombotic, embolic, or hemorrhagic events. While stroke related psychiatric complications have been recognized for over a century, they have never received the same degree of attention as post stroke motor deficits, language difficulties, or intellectual disturbances. Some of these stroke clinical complications, such as depression and whereas anxiety or emotional liability are other complications. Depression after stroke is associated with a lower quality of life and also with a higher risk of dying. After a stroke, approximately one third of patients experience depression. It’s important to correctly test for and diagnosis post stroke depression, as well as determine the seriousness of the disease. PSD is related to a variety of stroke risk factors and it can be fatal if left untreated. There is good evidence that early initiation of antidepressant treatment is associated with a decreased risk of developing and successful prevention of PSD in non depressed stroke patients. PSD requires special care, and consensus on the diagnosis and treatment of PSD should be achieved. Keywords: Antidepressant, depression, Post stroke depression, Stroke

The study was conducted to evaluate the antidepressant activity of ethanolic extract of Clitorea ternatea leaves in mice.  This test was done using healthy albino mice weighing 20-25gm each of either sex in the Department of Pharmacology of Gauhati Medical College. They were housed in standard laboratory condition at 25ºC and fed on standard diet and water ad libitum. Five groups were selected each containing six mice. The groups were Group I (Normal Control), Group II (Disease Control), Group III (Fluoxetine 10mg/kg i.p),Group IV (Ethanolic extract of Clitorea ternatea leaves 150mg/kg i.p) and Group V (Ethanolic extract of Clitorea ternatea leaves 300mg/kg i.p). Reserpine (2mg/kg i.p) was used to induce depression in all the groups except the Normal Control. After 24 hours, the standard and test drugs were given and the mice were subjected to tail suspension test (TST) after 30 mins and forced swim test (FST) after 1 hour of injecting the drugs.  Mean±SEM values were calculated for each group. The data were analyzed using ANOVA and post analysis was done by Dunnett’s test. Results were found to be significant (p