2020
Volume 20, Number 1, pp. 22-26
Behavioural changes in psychogenic stress and depression with rats at different hierarchy levels
T. Matitaishvili and T. Domianidze
Ivane Beritashvili Centre of Experimental Biomedicine, Gotua St 14, Tbilisi, Georgia
We used an informational stress model for the purpose of modeling chronic psychogenic stress and depression. The character and results of psychogenic stress development depend on individual properties of the nervous system. Emerging from this, the purpose of our research was to study the effect of stress on the behaviour of dominant and submissive rats at different stages of informational stress and during a state of depression. In order to study anxiety and depressive behaviour of rats we used the "elevated plus maze", "forced swim" and "open field" behavioural tests. Our results showed that chronic stressing led to the development of depressive behaviour in both dominant and submissive rats. Our study also revealed the significance of serotonin in adaptation mechanisms in response to a psychogenic stressor.
Keywords: depression, dominant-submissive relations, informational stress