2023
Volume 23, Number 2/3, pp. 53-56
Social stress causes depressive-like behaviour in submissive rats
T. Matitaishvili, T. Domianidze and K. Kozmava
Ivane Beritashvili Centre of Experimental Biomedicine, 14 Gotua St, Tbilisi, Georgia
Social stress is the main provoking factor of mental disorders, including depression. Therefore, during the last decade interest in using social stress in animal models of stress pathology has been renewed. It is known that the character and outcomes of stress development depend on individual peculiarities of the nervous system. From available studies one infers that socially dependent animals of submissive behaviour type are rather sensitive to stress. Here we report studies of social stress effects on the behaviour of submissive individuals in small groups of rats. Our results showed that social stress led to the development of depressive-like behaviour in submissive rats, emphasizing the importance of environment and social interactions in the development of stress-related mental disorders—or their prevention.
Keywords: depression, dominant–submissive relations, stress pathology models