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    <journal-meta>
      <journal-id journal-id-type="nlm-ta">J Reprod Infert</journal-id>
      <journal-id journal-id-type="publisher-id">arij001</journal-id>
      <journal-title-group>
        <journal-title>Journal of Reproduction &amp; Infertility</journal-title>
      </journal-title-group>
      <issn pub-type="ppub">2228-5482</issn>
      <issn pub-type="epub">2251-676X</issn>
      <publisher>
        <publisher-name>Avicenna Research Institute</publisher-name>
      </publisher>
    </journal-meta>

    <article-meta>
      <article-id pub-id-type="publisher-id">jri296</article-id>
      <article-id pub-id-type="doi"></article-id>
      <article-id pub-id-type="pmid"></article-id>
      <article-categories>
        <subj-group subj-group-type="heading">
             <subject></subject> 
        </subj-group>
        <subj-group>
            <subject></subject>
        </subj-group> 
      </article-categories>
      <title-group>
        <article-title>Chronic Morphine Dependency and its Behavioral and Reproductive Effects in Rats</article-title>
      </title-group>
        <contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author"><name><surname>Arabpour</surname><given-names>Elaheh</given-names></name></contrib><aff>Afzalipour Faculty of Medicine, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran</aff></contrib-group><contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author"><name><surname>Paydar</surname><given-names>Azimeh Sadat</given-names></name></contrib><aff>Afzalipour Faculty of Medicine, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran</aff></contrib-group><contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author"><name><surname>Sheibani</surname><given-names>Vahid</given-names></name></contrib><aff>Department of Physiology, Afzalipour Faculty of Medicine, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran</aff></contrib-group><contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author"><name><surname>Rayegan</surname><given-names>Seyyed Parviz</given-names></name></contrib><aff>Department of Anatomy, Afzalipour Faculty of Medicine, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran</aff></contrib-group><contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author"><name><surname>Nematollahi-Mahani</surname><given-names>Seyed Noureddin</given-names></name></contrib><aff>Department of Anatomy, Afzalipour Faculty of Medicine, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran</aff><aff>Neuroscience Research Center, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran</aff></contrib-group>
      <pub-date pub-type="ppub">
        <day></day>
        <month></month>
        <year></year>
      </pub-date>
      <pub-date pub-type="epub">
        <day></day>
        <month></month>
        <year></year>
      </pub-date>
      <volume>8</volume>
      <issue>4</issue>
      <fpage>337</fpage>
      <lpage>345</lpage>
      <history>
        <date date-type="received">
          <day>1</day>
          <month>1</month>
          <year>2008</year>
        </date>
        <date date-type="accepted">
          <day>1</day>
          <month>1</month>
          <year>2008</year>
        </date>
      </history>
      <abstract>
      <p>
      Introduction: Opioids and morphine are increasingly abused in modern societies, especially in recent years. Therefore, the present study was designed to evaluate the effects of morphine depen-dency on rats’ sexual and maternal behaviors, birth rate, sex ratio and the rate of stillbirths.
Materials &amp; Methods: Adult male and female rats were allocated into treatment and control groups. The treatment group was sub-divided into two morphine-dependent groups, group I) consisting of a number of male couples and group II) of both parents. Morphine dependency was induced by gradual administration of oral morphine with a final dose of 0.4 mg/ml dispensed in drinking water for 14 days. Morphine dependency was confirmed by the observation of changes induced by naloxane administration. Sexual behavior was determined by vaginal plague obser-vation. Weight gain during pregnancy, rate of stillbirths, sex ratio, and maternity behavior (Caring for the neonates or eating them) were assessed in the groups. For statistical tests, one-way ANOVA with its non-parametric equivalent and for comparing means, 2 were used while employing SPSS software, version 13, for statistical analysis. The level of significance was regarded as p&lt;0.05. 
Results: A non-significant decline in sexual tendency was observed in groups I (60%) and II (67%), compared to the control group (80%). In the control group, 69% of all matings resulted in delivery compared to 39% and 38% in groups I and II respectively (p&lt;0.05). Weight gain in groups I, II and the controls were 46&#177;38, 28&#177;28 and 62&#177;33 grams respectively. Weight gain difference between the control group and group II was statistically significant (p&lt;0.05). Sex ratio was 1.17, 1 and 1.57 in groups I, II and the controls, respectively. No stillbirths were seen in group I, while the rate of stillbirth in group II (67%) was statistically significant (p&lt;0.001); one stillbirth was also seen in the control group. The rate of pup cannibalism in female rats on group II (37%) was significantly higher (p&lt;0.001) than group I and the controls.
Conclusion: Morphine dependency neither had effects on sex drive nor on fertilizing capacity in male or female rats but it increased the rate of pseudo-pregnancy. Morphine also increased the rate of stillbirths but it adversely affected maternal weight gain during pregnancy. Maternal beha-vior was highly affected by morphine dependency as well.
      </p>
      </abstract>
    </article-meta>
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