Fluoxetine exposure in adolescent and adult female mice decreases cocaine and sucrose preference later in life

Background:Preclinical evidence from male subjects indicates that exposure to psychotropic medications, during early development, results in long-lasting altered responses to reward-related stimuli. However, it is not known if exposure to the antidepressant fluoxetine, in female subjects specifically, changes sensitivity to natural and drug rewards, later in life.Aims:The aim of this work was to investigate if exposure to fluoxetine mediates enduring changes in sensitivity to the rewarding properties of cocaine and sucrose, using female mice as a model system.Methods:We exposed C57BL/6 female mice to fluoxetine (250 mg/L in their drinking water) for 15 consecutive days, either during adolescence (postnatal day 35–49) or adulthood (postnatal day 70–84). Twenty-one days later, mice were examined on their behavioral reactivity to cocaine (0, 2.5, 5, 7.5 mg/kg) using the conditioned place preference paradigm, or assessed on the two-bottle sucrose (1%) test.Results:We found that regardless of age of antidepres...