Abstract
The term “stress” has several meanings; in behavioral research it is used in the sense of “a physical, chemical, or emotional factor (as trauma, histamine, or fear) to which an individual fails to make a satisfactory adaptation” or “the state or condition of strain (Webster’s dictionary, 1971).” Selye used “stress” to indicate the response of an organism to a “stressor” and made a distinction between adaptive and maladaptive responses (Selye, 1950, Selye, 1974). Emotional stimuli such as novelty, withholding of reward, and anticipation of punishment (rather than punishment itself) are the most frequent stressors and among the most efficacious activators of the neuroendocrine systems that play a role in stress responses (Mason, 1968, Mason, 1975). A more comprehensive definition of stress given by (1987) is a condition when expectations, whether genetically programmed or established by a prior learning, do not match the current or anticipated perceptions of internal or external environment. This discrepancy causes a complex range of adaptive responses, whose pattern is dependent upon the type and duration of the provoking event (Chrousos, 1998; Pacak & Palkovits, 2001).
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, (4th ed., Rev.). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.
Antelman, S. M., Eichler, A. J., Black, C. A., & Kocan, D. (1980). Interchangeability of stress and amphetamine sensitization. Science, 207, 329–331.
Arana, G. W., Baldessarini, R. J., & Ornsteen, M. (1985). The dexamethasone suppression test for diagnosis and prognosis in psychiatry—commentary and review. Archives of General Psychiatry, 42, 1193–1204.
Bell, S. M., Stewart, R. B., Thompson, S. C., and Meisch, R. A. (1997). Food-deprivation increases cocaine-induced conditioned place preference and locomotor activity in rats. Psychopharmacology, 131, 1–8.
Berger, M., Bossert, S., Krieg, J. C., Dirlich, G., Ettmeier, W., Schreiber, W., and von Zerssen, D. (1987). Interindividual differences in the susceptibility of the cortisol system: An important factor for the degree of hypercortisolism in stress situations? Biological Psychiatry, 22, 1327–1339.
Berthoud, H.-R. (2002). Multiple neural systems controlling food intake and body weight. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 26, 393–428.
Bouchard, T. J., Jr., Lykken, D. T., McGue, M., Segal, N. L., and Tellegen, A. (1990). Sources of human psychological differences: the Minnesota study of twins reared apart. Science, 250, 223–228.
Bozarth, M. A., Murray, A., and Wise, R. A. (1989). Influence of housing conditions on the acquisition of intravenous heroin and cocaine self-administration in rats. Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior, 33, 903–907.
Breslau, N., Chilcoat, H. D., Kessler, R. C., and Davis, G. C. (1999). Previous exposure to trauma and PTSD effects of subsequent trauma: Results from the Detroit area survey of trauma. American Journal of Psychiatry, 156, 902–907.
Brody, S. (2002). Age at first intercourse is inversely related to female cortisol stress reactivity. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 27, 933–943.
Bruce-Keller, A. J., Umberger, G., McFall, R., and Mattson, M. P. (1999). Food restriction reduces brain damage and improves behavioral outcome following excitotoxic and metabolic insults. Annals of Neurology, 45, 8–15.
Cabeza de Vaca, S., and Carr, K. D. (1998). Food restriction enhances the central rewarding effect of abused drugs. Journal of Neuroscience, 18, 7502–7510.
Cabib, S., Orsini, C., Le Moal, M., and Piazza, P. V. (2000). Abolition and reversal of strain differences in behavioral responses to drugs of abuse after a brief experience. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 289, 463–465.
Carr, K. D., Kim, G.-Y., and Cabeza de Vaca, S. (2000). Chronic food restriction augments the central rewarding effect of cocaine and the δ-1 opioid agonist, DPDPE, but not the δ-2 agonist, deltorphin-II. Psychopharmacology, 152, 200–207.
Carroll, B. J., Feinberg, M., Greden, J. F., Tarika, J., Albala, A. A., Haskett, R. F., James, N. M., Kronfol, Z., Lohr, N., Steiner, M., de Vigne, J. P., and Young, E. (1981). A specific laboratory test for the diagnosis of melancholia—standardization, validation, and clinical utility. Archives of General Psychiatry, 38, 15–22.
Carroll, M. E., and Meisch, R. A. (1984). Increased drug-reinforced behavior due to food deprivation. Advances in Behavioral Pharmacology, 4, 47–88.
Chrousos, G. P. (1998). Stressors, stress, and neuroendocrine integration of the adaptive response. The 1997 Hans Selye Memorial Lecture. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 851, 311–335.
Deminihre, J. M., Piazza P. V., Guegan, G., Abrous, N., Maccari, S., Le Moal, M., and Simon, H. (1992). Increased locomotor response to novelty and propensity to intravenous amphetamine self-administration in adult offspring of stressed mothers. Brain Research, 586, 135–139.
De Montis, M. G., Rauggi, R., Scheggi, S., and Tagliamonte, A. (2004). Effect of chronic unavoidable stress exposure on glucocorticoid receptor levels in different areas of rat brain. FENS Abstracts, 2, A011.5.
Deroche, V., Marinelli, M., Maccari, S., Le Moal, M., Simon, H., and Piazza, P. V. (1995). Stress-induced sensitization and glucocorticoids: I. Sensitization of dopamine-dependent locomotor effects of amphetamine and morphine depends on stress-induced corticosterone secretion. Journal of Neuroscience, 15, 7181–7188.
Deroche, V., Piazza, P. V., Casolini, P., Maccari, S., Le Moal, M., and Simon, H. (1992). Stress-induced sensitization to amphetamine and morphine psychomotor effects depend on stress-induced corticosterone secretion. Brain Research, 598, 343–348.
Deroche, V., Piazza, P. V., Le Moal, M., and Simon, H. (1994). Social isolation-induced enhancement of the psychomotor effects of morphine depends on corticosterone secretion. Brain Research, 640, 136–139.
Detke, M. J., Rickels, M., and Lucki I. (1995). Active behaviors in the rat forced swimming test differentially produced by serotonergic and noradrenergic antidepressants. Psychopharmacology, 12, 66–72.
Di Chiara, G., and Tanda, G. (1997). Blunting of reactivity of dopamine transmission to palatable food: A biochemical marker of anhedonia in the CMS model? Psychopharmacology, 134, 351–353.
Duan, W., and Mattson, M. P. (1999). Dietary restriction and 2-deoxyglucose administration improve behavioral outcome and reduce degeneration dopaminergic neurons in models of Parkinson’s disease. Journal of Neuroscience Research, 57, 195–206.
Elkins, R. (1990). Measurement of free hormones in blood. Endocrine Reviews, 11, 5–46.
Gaab, J., Blattler, N., Menzi, T., Pabst, B., Stoyer, S., and Ehlert, U. (2003). Randomized controlled evaluation of the effects of cognitive-behavioral stress management on cortisol responses to acute stress in healthy subjects. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 28, 767–779.
Gambarana, C., Ghiglieri, O., & De Montis, M. G. (1995). Desensitization of the D1(pg/10 µL) dopamine receptors in rats reproduces a model of escape deficit reverted by imipramine, fluoxetine and clomipramine. Progress Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry, 19, 741–755.
Gambarana, C., Ghiglieri, O., Taddei, I., Tagliamonte, A., and De Montis M. G. (1995). Imipramine and fluoxetine prevent the stress-induced escape deficits in rats through a distinct mechanism of action. Behavioural Pharmacology, 6, 66–73.
Gambarana, C., Scheggi, S., Tagliamonte, A., Tolu, P., and De Montis, M. G. (2001). Animal models for the study of antidepressant activity. Brain Research Protocols, 7, 11–20.
Gambarana, C., Masi, F., Leggio, B., Grappi, S., Nanni, G., Scheggi, S., De Montis, M. G., and Tagliamonte, A. (2003). Acquisition of a palatable-food-sustained appetitive behavior in satiated rats is dependent on the dopaminergic response to this food in limbic areas. Neuroscience, 121, 179–187.
Ghiglieri, O., Gambarana, C., Scheggi, S., Tagliamonte, A., Willner, P., and De Montis, M. G. (1997). Palatable food induces an appetitive behaviour in satiated rats which can be inhibited by chronic stress. Behavioural Pharmacology, 8, 619–628.
Goldstein, D. S. (1987). Stress-induced activation of the sympathetic nervous system. Bailliere’s Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, 1, 253–278.
Grappi, S., Nanni, G., Leggio, B., Rauggi, R., Scheggi, S., Masi, F., and Gambarana, C. (2003). The efficacy of reboxetine in preventing and reverting a condition of escape deficit in rats. Biological Psychiatry, 53, 890–898.
Halbreich, U., Asnis, G. M., Schindledecker, R., Zurnoff, B., and Nathan, R. S. (1985). Cortisol secretion in endogenous depression. I. Basal plasma levels. Archives of General Psychiatry, 2, 909–914.
Hall, D. M., Oberley, T. D., Moseley, P. M., Buettner, G. R., Oberley, L. W., Weindruch, R., and Kregel, K. C. (2000). Caloric restriction improves thermotolerance and reduces hyperthermia-induced cellular damage in old rats. FASEB Journal, 14, 78–86.
Herman, J. P., Figueiredo, H., Mueller, N. K., Ulrich-Lai, Y., Ostrander, M. M., Choi, D. C., and Cullinan, W. E. (2003). Central mechanisms of stress integration: Hierarchical circuitry controlling hypothalamopituitary-adrenocortical responsiveness. Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology, 24, 151–180.
Heuser, I., Yassouridis, A., and Holsboer, F. (1994). The combined dexamethasone/CRH test: A refined laboratory test for psychiatric disorders. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 28, 341–356.
Holsboer, F., von Bardeleben, U., Wiedemann, K., Müller, O. A., and Stalla, G. K. (1987). Serial assessment of corticotropin-releasing hormone response after dexamethasone in depression—implications for pathophysiology of DST nonsuppression. Biological Psychiatry, 22, 228–234.
Holsboer-Trachsler, E., Stohler, R., and Hatzinger, M. (1991). Repeated administration of the combined dexamethasone-human corticotropin releasing hormone stimulation test during treatment of depression. Psychiatric Research, 38, 163–171.
Jacobson, L., and Sapolsky, R. (1991). The role of the hippocampus in feedback regulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis. Endocrine Reviews, 12, 118–134.
Kirschbaum, C., and Hellhammer, D. H. (1989). Salivary cortisol in psychobiological research: An overview. Neuropsychobiology, 22, 150–169.
Kirschbaum, C., and Hellhammer, D. H. (1994). Salivary cortisol in psychoneuroendocrine research: Recent developments and applications. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 19, 313–333.
Kirschbaum, C., Klauer, T., Filipp, S. H, and Hellhammer, D. H. (1995). Sex-specific effects of social support on cortisol and subjective responses to acute psychological stress. Psychosomatic Medicine, 57, 23–31.
Kirschbaum, C., Pirke, K. M., and Hellhammer, D. H. (1993). The “Trier Social Stress Test”—a tool for investigating psychobiological stress responses in a laboratory setting. Neuropsychobiology, 28, 76–81.
Kroll, J. (2003). Posttraumatic symptoms and the complexity of responses to trauma. Journal of the American Medical Association, 290, 667–670.
Kudielka, B. M., Buske-Kirschbaum, A., Hellhammer, D. H., and Kirschbaum, C. (2004). HPA axis responses to laboratory psychosocial stress in healthy elderly adults, younger adults, and children: impact of age and gender. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 29, 83–98.
Kudielka, B. M., Hellhammer, J., Hellhammer, D. H., Wolf, O. T., Pirke, K. M., Varadi, E., Pilz, J., and Kirschbaum, C. (1998). Sex differences in endocrine and psychological responses to psychosocial stress in healthy elderly subjects and the impact of a 2-week dehydroepiandrosterone treatment. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, 83, 1756–1761.
Kudielka, B. M., Schmidt-Reinwald, A. K., Hellhammer, D. H., Schurmeyer, T., and Kirschbaum, C. (2000). Psychosocial stress and HPA functioning: no evidence for a reduced resilience in healthy elderly men. Stress, 3, 229–240.
Lister, R. G. (1987). The use of a plus-maze to measure anxiety in the mouse. Psychopharmacology, 92, 180–185.
Maier, S. F. (1986). Stressor controllability and stress-induced analgesia. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 46, 55–72.
Mangiavacchi, S., Masi, F., Scheggi, S., Leggio, B., De Montis, M. G., and Gambarana, C. (2001). Long-term behavioral and neurochemical effects of chronic stress exposure in rats. Journal of Neurochemistry, 79, 1113–1121.
Martin, P. R., and Seneviratne, H. M. (1997). Effects of food deprivation and a stressor on head pain. Health Psychology, 16, 310–318.
Mason, J. W. (1968). A review of psychoendocrine research on the pituitary-adrenal cortical system. Psychosomatic Medicine, 30, 576–607.
Mason, J. W. (1975). A historical view of the stress field. Journal of Human Stress, 1, 6–12.
Meltzer, H. W., and Lowy M. T. (1987). The serotonin hypothesis of depression. In H. W. Meltzer (Ed.), Psychopharmacology: The third generation of progress (pp. 513–526). New York: Raven.
Moreau, J. L., Jenck, F., Martin, J. R., Mortas, P., and Haefely, W. E. (1992). Antidepressant treatment prevents chronic unpredictable mild stress-induced anhedonia as assessed by ventral tegmentum self-stimulation behavior in rats. European Neuropsychopharmacology, 2, 43–49.
Muscat, R., Papp, M., and Willner, P. (1992a). Antidepressant-like effects of dopamine agonists in an animal model of depression. Biological Psychiatry, 31, 937–946.
Muscat, R., Papp, M., and Willner, P. (1992b). Reversal of stress-induced anhedonia by the atypical antidepressants, fluoxetine and maprotiline. Psychopharmacology, 109, 433–438.
Muscat, R., Sampson, D., and Willner, P. (1990). Dopaminergic mechanism of imipramine action in an animal model of depression. Biological Psychiatry, 28, 223–230.
Oshima, A., Miyano, H., Yamashita, S., Owashi, T., Suzuki, S., Sakano, Y., and Higuchi, T. (2001). Psychological, autonomic and neuroendocrine responses to acute stressors in the combined dexamethasone/CRH test: A study in healthy subjects. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 35, 95–104.
Overmier, J. B., and Seligman, M. E. P. (1967). Effects of inescapable shock upon subsequent escape and avoidance learning. Journal of Comparative Physiology and Psychology, 63, 23–33.
Pacak, K. and Palkovits, M. (2001). Stressor specificity of central neuroendocrine responses: implications for stress-related disorders. Endocrine Reviews, 22, 502–548.
Pacchioni, A. M., Gioino, G., Assis, A., and Cancela, L. M. (2002). A single exposure to restraint stress induces behavioral and neurochemical sensitization to stimulating effects of amphetamine. Involvement of NMDA receptors. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 965, 233–246.
Papp, M., Moryl, E., and Willner, P. (1996). Pharmacological validation of the chronic mild stress model of depression. European Journal of Pharmacology, 296, 129–136.
Papp, M., Willner, P., and Muscat, R. (1991). An animal model of anhedonia: Attenuation of sucrose consumption and place preference conditioning by chronic unpredictable mild stress. Psychopharmacology, 104, 255–259.
Pellow, S., Chopin, P., File, S. E., and Briley, M. (1985). Validation of open:closed arm entries in an elevated plus-maze as a measure of anxiety in the rat. Journal of Neuroscience Methods, 14, 149–167.
Peters, A., Schweiger, U., Pellerin, L., Hubold, C., Oltmanns, K. M., Conrad, M., Schultes, B., Born, J., and Fehm, H. L. (2004). The selfish brain: competition for energy resources. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 28, 143–180.
Porsolt, R. D., LePichon, R., and Jalfre, R. (1977). Depression: a new animal model sensitive to antidepressant treatments. Nature, 266, 730–732.
Rauggi, R., Cassanelli, A., Raone, A., Tagliamonte, A., & Gambarana, C. (2005). Study of Mirtazapine antidepressant effects in rats. International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, 15, 1–11.
Reid, J. D., Intrieri, R. C., Susman, E. J., and Beard, J. L. (1992). The relationship of serum and salivary cortisol in a sample of healthy elderly. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 47, 176–179.
Rodeck, H. (1969). Animal experimental studies on the influence of hunger on the development of the neurosecretory hypothalamo-neurohypophyseal system. Journal of Neuro-Visceral Relations, 31, 136–160.
Schildkraut, J. J. (1965). The catecholamine hypothesis of affective disorders: A review of supporting evidence. American Journal of Psychiatry, 122, 509–522.
Seeman, T. E., Singer, B., Wilkinson, C. W., and McEwen, B. (2001). Gender differences in age-related changes in HPA axis reactivity. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 26, 225–240.
Selye, H. (1950). Stress. Montreal: Acta Inc.
Selye, H. (1974). Stress without distress. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart Ltd.
Sherman, A. D., Sacquitine, J. L., and Petty, F. (1982). Specificity of the learned helplessness model of depression. Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior, 16, 449–454.
Steru, L., Chermat, R., Thierry, B., and Simon, P. (1985). The tail suspension test: A new method for screening antidepressants in mice. Psychopharmacology, 85, 367–370.
Steru, L., Chermat, R., Thierry, B., Mico, J. A., Lenegre, A., Steru, M., Simon, P., and Porsolt, R. D. (1987). The automated tail suspension test: A computerized device which differentiates psychotropic drugs. Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry, 11, 659–671.
Tandon, R., Mazzara, C., DeQuardo, J., Craig, K. A., Meador-Woodruff, J. H., Goldman, R., and Greden, J. F. (1991). Dexamethasone suppression test in schizophrenia: Relationship to symptomatology, ventricular enlargement and outcome. Biological Psychiatry, 29, 953–964.
Vogel, J. R., Beer, B., and Clody, D. E. (1971). A simple and reliable conflict procedure for testing antianxiety agents. Psychopharmacologia, 21, 1–7.
Wan, R., Camandola, S., and Mattson, M. P. (2003). Intermittent food deprivation improves cardiovascular and neuroendocrine responses to stress in rats. Journal of Nutrition, 133, 1921–1929.
Watamura, S. E., Donzella, B., Alwin, J., and Gunnar, M. R. (2003). Morning-to-afternoon increases in cortisol concentrations for infants and toddlers at child care: Age differences and behavioral correlates. Child Development, 74, 1006–1020.
Webster’s Third New International Dictionary. (1971). Springfield, MA: Merriam Webster.
Weindruch, R., and Sohal, R. S. (1997). Seminars in medicine of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center: caloric intake and aging. New England Journal of Medicine, 337, 986–994.
Welsaeth, L. (2002). The European history of psychotraumatology. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 15, 443–452.
Willner, P. (1983). Dopamine and depression: a review of recent evidence. I. Empirical studies. Brain Research, 287, 211–224.
Willner, P. (1995). Animal models of depression: validity and applications. Advances in Biochemistry and Psychopharmacology, 49, 19–41.
Willner, P., Towell, A., Sampson, D., Sophokleous, S., and Muscat, R. (1987). Reduction of sucrose preference by chronic unpredictable mild stress and its restoration by a tricyclic antidepressant. Psychopharmacology, 93, 358–364.
Wolf, O. T., Schommer, N. C., Hellhammer, D. H., McEwen, B. S., and Kirschbaum, C. (2001). The relationship between stress induced cortisol levels and memory differs between men and women. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 26, 711–720.
Wust, S., Van Rossum, E. F., Federenko, I. S., Koper, J. W., Kumsta, R., and Hellhammer, D. H. (2004). Common polymorphisms in the glucocorticoid receptor gene are associated with adrenocortical responses to psychosocial stress. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, 89, 565–573.
Yi, I., and Stephan, F. K. (1998). The effects of food deprivation, nutritive and non-nutritive feeding and wheel running on gastric stress ulcers in rats. Physiology and Behavior, 63, 219–225.
Zobel, A. W., Nickel, T., Sonntag, A., Uhr, M., Holsboer, F., and Ising, M. (2001). Cortisol response in the combined dexamethasone/CRH test as predictor of relapse in patients with remitted depression: A prospective study. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 35, 83–94.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2006 Humana Press Inc., Totowa, NJ
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Gambarana, C. (2006). Experimental Protocols for the Study of Stress in Animals and Humans. In: Yehuda, S., Mostofsky, D.I. (eds) Nutrients, Stress, and Medical Disorders. Nutrition and Health. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1385/1-59259-952-4:021
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1385/1-59259-952-4:021
Publisher Name: Humana Press
Print ISBN: 978-1-58829-432-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-59259-952-3
eBook Packages: Chemistry and Materials ScienceChemistry and Material Science (R0)