Exposição materna à Valeriana durante a lactação altera o comportamento materno e o desenvolvimento pós-natal das crias?

Abstract

The postpartum period is a period of elevated sensitivity for both mother and newborn. In this, the maternal organism begins to have new hormonal stimuli to control functions such as maternal care and lactation. The newborn begins to try a new environment, and will experience from postpartum to full lactation for a critical period of development, when it will be extremely sensitive to environmental, hormonal and nutritional changes. With these physiological changes added to social pressures, some mothers begin to present disorders such as anxiety and insomnia. In order for these disorders not to affect maternal health and its important relationships with newborns, it is recommended to use drugs to treat them. Drugs commonly used for this type of treatment, as benzodiazepines have been bringing adverse effects. With this, it becomes important to investigate the safety of the use of possible treatments in the period. One treatment popularly used for cases of anxiety and insomnia is the use of Valerian, a herbal medicine produced from the Valeriana officinalis plant, which has shown good results in treating these disorders but has not yet been studied and tested for the postpartum period. One of the Valerian’s mechanisms of action is similar to benzodiazepines mechanism, whose negative effects on the fetus have already been demonstrated. Thus, our aim was to evaluate the effects of Valerian use in the postnatal period in rats and their offspring. For this, 75 Wistar rats were divided into 5 groups Control, Vehicle (1 ml distilled water, 20% glycerin) and 3 different treated groups (500 mg/Kg/day, 1000 mg/Kg/day, 2000 mg/Kg/day of valerian, 20% glycerin). These were submitted to treatment during the whole lactation period, when they were evaluated for clinical toxicity (Piloerection, diarrhea, chromodacriorrhea, loss or weight gain, feed and water intake) and presentation of maternal behavior (Posture of breastfeeding, organization and maintenance of the nest, collecting and licking the offspring). Offspring were evaluated for postnatal development and behavior of anxiety and long-term memory in adulthood. Our results showed no changes in maternal behavior and toxicity, showing that mothers treated with Valerian presented the same patterns of care as the control and the vehicle group. The postnatal development of the offspring showed no significant difference between the experimental groups. There were also no changes in the behavior of anxiety and memory in offspring as an adult. Thus, in our experimental model the Valerian administered during the full lactation period, did not interfere with pups development and behavior, did not alter maternal behavior and did not cause maternal toxicity.