title: Prenatal stress is associated with depression-related electroencephalographic sleep changes in adult male rats: a preliminary report.
abstract: 1. Prenatal stress in rats has been shown to produce long-term behavioral, neuroendocrine and neurochemical changes. These changes may model aspects of human depressive illness. 2. In this pilot investigation, adult male offspring exposed to stress in utero and non-stressed controls were studied using 24-hour electroencephalographic sleep recordings. 3. Prenatally stressed animals demonstrated reduced latency to the onset of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, prolongation of the first REM episode, and diminished slow-wave sleep. 4. Although preliminary, the observed changes parallel those seen in studies of human depression. These data further support the face validity of the prenatal stress model as a potential tool for future studies on the pathophysiology of depressive disorder.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, UCLA School of Medicine, USA.
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Rao
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: McGinty
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shinde
authors.forename: J T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: McCracken
authors.forename: R E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Poland
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004576:Electromyography; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D010865:Pilot Projects; D017286:Polysomnography; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*; D012895:Sleep, REM / Q000502:physiology; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*