Depression is a highly prevalent social disease. Despite significant medical progress, therapeutic solutions for optimising treatment of this disease are still being sought. The aim of this study was to assess, using the forced swimming test, locomotor activity test and two compartment exploratory test, for a reduction in immobility time (a measure of anti-depressant efficacy), locomotor activity and anxiolytic effectiveness after single, repeated, and combined administration of vortioxetine (2.5 mg/kg - a multimodal SMS), dapoxetine (3.0 mg/kg - an SSRI used in premature ejaculation disorders) and fluoxetine (5.0 mg/kg - an SSRI) in non-stressed and prenatally stressed rats. It was found that vortioxetine, fluoxetine and dapoxetine reduced immobility time and rat locomotor activity which suggests anti-depressant efficacy of these drugs both in monotherapy and in combined administration. The results also confirmed an anxiolytic effect of the study drugs in mono and combined therapy. Analysis of the pathomechanism of depression and the mechanisms of action of the individual drugs tested resulted in a prediction that combined administration of these drugs may be effective in the treatment of depressive disorders, although possible interactions between the drugs used must be assessed for. Considering the fact that dapoxetine is not currently used in depression treatment and vortioxetine is a relatively new drug, further research in this direction is vital, including within animal models.
