How the Pregabalin (Lyrica) Administration as an Abuse Drug Can Affects the Reproductive Health of Male Wistar Rat

Drugs addiction considered a massive problem persist in diverse populations everywhere the world. Our work aimed to illustrate the correlation between drug addiction and reproductive function in an animal model, also the potential impact of pregabalin (Lyrica) intake on spermatozoa formation process and sexual hormone levels. In this study, we used 14 adult healthy rats that allocated into two groups (n = 7) as control and treated that orally administrated with pregabalin (23.7 mg/kg) for 30 subsequent days. Reproductive hormones, spermatozoa parameters (motility and morphology), lipid peroxidation (MDA), nitric oxide, total antioxidant activity, DNA damage and histopathological investigation were performed. The results revealed that pregabalin addiction had a harmful impact on the hypothalamus-pituitary-gonad axis of male rats through hindered hormones secretion, raised reactive oxygen species, affect antioxidant enzymes, triggered DNA damage and distorted testicular histology. Finally, we found that addiction of Lyrica caused adverse impact on the male reproductive health and subsequently affect fertility.