Phosphatidylserine: an antidepressive or a cognitive enhancer?

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the putative antidepressive and cognitive enhancer effects of phosphatidylserine (BC-PS). The antidepressive effect of BC-PS (50, 100 or 200 mg/kg), compared to saline or imipramine (IMI; 25 mg/kg), was studied in the forced swimming test in rats. These drugs were administered 1 and 8 h after training and 1 h before the test. BC-PS (50, 100 and 200 mg/kg)-treated rats exhibited a significant decrease in immobility time (IT) in the test session (performed 24 h after training) when compared to control rats. Moreover, the IMI-treated group showed a significant reduction in IT in comparison to control rats. The cognitive enhancer effect of BC-PS (50, 100 and 200 mg/kg) was studied in the three versions of the water maze task: spatial working memory version, spatial reference memory version, and cued version. There was no significant difference between the BC-PS-treated groups and control animals in these memory tasks. Taken together, the present results are suggestive of an antidepressive effect of BC-PS in the forced swimming test in rats but not of a cognitive enhancer effect of the drug in the water maze test.