Anxiolytic-like effect of group housing on stress-induced behavior in rats

✍ Scribed by Carolina Souza Andrade; Francisco Silveira Guimarães

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2003
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 80 KB
• Volume: 18
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1091-4269
• DOI: 10.1002/da.10124

✦ Synopsis

Social support is proposed to attenuate behavioral consequences of exposure to uncontrollable stressors. To test this possibility, we compared the effects of two post-stress housing conditions, in pairs or in groups of 10-12 animals per cage, on the behavior of rats tested in the elevated plus-maze (EPM) 24 hr after stress. We also included positive control groups to compare the effects of a standard anxiolytic, diazepam, with those of vehicle. Confirming previous results, diazepam increased the percentage of entries and time spent in the open arms (vehicle, % open entries: 37.072.7, % time spent in open arms: 17.671.9; diazepam, % open entries: 46.772.7, % time spent in open arms: 39.173.9). Group housing after restraint significantly prevented the anxiogenic effect of restraint (group housing, % open entries: 32.075.2, % time spent in open arms: 17.675.0; pair housing, % open entries: 18.772.2, % time spent in open arms: 6.571.0). These results suggest that housing conditions could be an important factor in the development of behavioral consequences of stress exposure.