Chronic Ritalin Administration during Adulthood Increases Serotonin Pool in Rat Medial Frontal Cortex

Background: Ritalin has high tendency to be abused. It has been the main indication to control attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The college students may seek for it to improve their memory, decrease the need for sleep (especially during exams), which at least partially, can be related to serotonergic system. Therefore, it seems worthy to evaluate the effect of Ritalin intake on mature brain. There are many studies on Ritalin effect on developing brain, but only few studies on adults are available. This study was undertaken to find Ritalin effect on serotonin transporter (SERT) density in medial frontal cortex (MFC) of mature rat. Methods: Thirty male Wistar rats were used in the study. Rats were assigned into five groups (n = 6 per group): one control, two Ritalin and two vehicle groups. Twelve rats received Ritalin (20 mg/kg/twice a day) orally for eleven continuous days. After one week of withdrawal and another two weeks of rest, in order to evaluate short-term effects of Ritalin, six rats were sacrificed. Another six rats were studied to detect the long-term effects of Ritalin therefore, they were sacrificed 12 weeks after the previous group. The immunohistochemistry was performed to evaluate the results. Results: Immunohistochemistry studies showed a higher density of SERT in both 2 and 12 weeks after withdrawal from Ritalin intake in MFC of rat and there was no significant difference between these two groups. Conclusions: Our findings demonstrated both short- and long-term effects of Ritalin on frontal serotonergic system after withdrawal period.