JoVE | Peer Reviewed Scientific Video Journal

TOPICAL COLLECTIONS

Animal Models of Stress and Anxiety: Methods for Induction and Treatment

Guest Editor

Thomas D. Prevot

University of Toronto; Department of Psychiatry, ON, Canada

Dr. Thomas D. Prevot is a Project Scientist in the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto, and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto (Canada). Dr. Prevot leads the <a href="https://nda-sibille.ca/team/prevot/">Memory, Emotion, Drugs and Synapses (MEDS)</a> Research group in CAMH, part of the Neurobiology of Depression and Aging Research Program. He has expertise in preclinical models of cognitive and mood disorders, as well as somatostatin- and GABA-dependent regulations. His research focuses on the neurobiology of memory and emotion processes, and how these processes are affected by stress, aging, and their interactions, leading to psychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases. More specifically, the MEDS team focuses on the characterization of behavioral, cellular and molecular outcomes of preclinical models of depression and other stress- and age-related psychiatric disorders. With expertise in preclinical models, the team has developed a unique expertise in translational research, including the characterization of novel targets for therapeutic avenues and medication development for future clinical testing. Dr. Prevot is actively involved in the translational research and medicine landscape at the University of Toronto, working across disciplines and being an advocate for bench-to-bedside discovery.

Collection Overview

Anxiety affects 1 in 3 adults, and is highly comorbid with many other disorders, including psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders. Stress is a major player in the development of anxiety and represents a risk factor for many psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders. With such a continuum between stress, anxiety and other disorders, multiple preclinical models rely on stress exposure to replicate human findings observed in many disorders. For example, chronic stress exposure, or chronic corticosterone (rodent stress hormone) administration are employed to induce chronic stress state in rodents, and to study the symptoms and underlying pathologies related to stress exposure and psychiatric disorders.

On the other hand, other studies require extreme control of animal stress response in order to reduce variability and increase reproducibility of data between experimenters and groups. Careful handling techniques and manipulations of experimental animals contribute to reduction of stress and fear-induced reactivity in animals, and improve quality of the dataset and, equally important, the wellbeing of the animals.

This collection highlights methods currently being used to either (1) induce a state of stress in animals in order to assess its impact on behavioral and underlying pathologies, and potentially test intervention therapies, or (2) reduce stress and fear-induced reactivity in animals.