title: Stress-induced enhancement of auditory startle: an animal model of posttraumatic stress disorder.
abstract: An innovative animal model of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is proposed in which nonhabituation of the acoustic startle response is developed in rats subsequent to tailshock exposure. Subjects (n = 31) received 30 minutes of intermittent tail shock on 2 days followed by exposure to the tailshock apparatus on the third day. Compared to baseline startle reactions, 9 of 31 tailshock-exposed rats developed nonhabituation of startle response reactions during the subsequent 3 weeks of testing. No control rats developed nonhabituation of startle reactions over a similar time period. These data suggest that this system models useful aspects of clinical PTSD emphasizing nonhabituation of startle reactions as a dependent variable. The method consistently identifies a subgroup of rats that develop persistent nonhabituation of startle in response to a tailshock-stress paradigm.
authors.affiliation: West Los Angeles VA Medical Center, 11301 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90073, USA. Thomas.Garrick@med.va.gov
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Garrick
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Morrow
authors.forename: A Y
authors.initials: AY
authors.lastname: Shalev
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Eth
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic; D008297:Male; D009622:Noise / Q000009:adverse effects*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D013216:Reflex, Startle / Q000502:physiology*; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000523:psychology*