Following
methamphetamine consumption and during abstinence many behavioral consequences emerge (i.e., cognitive deficits, ongoing episodes of
psychosis, depression, severe cravings, brain neurotoxicity), which are likely linked to propensity to relapse. In this line of thought, we recently showed that binge
methamphetamine administration enhanced negative affect and voluntary
drug consumption in rats, while it induced persistent neurotoxic effects (i.e., impaired hippocampal neurogenesis), effects that emerged long after
drug removal. To date, no pharmacological strategies have been proven to be effective for the treatment of
methamphetamine toxicity. A few studies have evaluated the impact of combining
methamphetamine pretreatment with electroconvulsive
seizures (ECS) post-treatment, an alternative non-pharmacological option used in psychiatry for resistant depression that offers a safe and really potent therapeutic response. Against this background, the present study aimed at testing whether repeated ECS treatment could ameliorate some of the long-term neurotoxicity effects induced by adolescent
methamphetamine exposure in rats and emerging after
drug removal. At the behavioral level, the main results showed that
methamphetamine administration did not alter negative affect immediate during adolescence or later on in adulthood. Interestingly, repeated ECS improved the negative impact of
methamphetamine administration on reducing hippocampal neurogenesis, demonstrating that ECS can attenuate certain degree of
methamphetamine-induced neurotoxicity in rats, and suggesting ECS as a good therapeutical candidate that deserves further studies.