title: Attenuation of fear-like response by escitalopram treatment after electrical stimulation of the midbrain dorsolateral periaqueductal gray.
abstract: Electrical stimulation of the dorsolateral periaqueductal gray (dlPAG) has frequently been shown to induce escape and freezing/decreased locomotion responses which mimic panic- and fear-like behaviour. In the present study we tested whether such spontaneous fear-like behaviour could be observed in an open-field test 12 h after dlPAG stimulation. Further, we tested whether this fear-like behaviour could be attenuated by acute or chronic administration of buspirone and escitalopram. Our data demonstrate for the first time that animals showed fear-like behaviour 12 h after dlPAG stimulation, which may possibly reflect panic disorder with anticipatory anxiety/agoraphobic symptoms. Acute and chronic escitalopram, but not buspirone, treatment attenuated the fear-related behaviour. Besides, our data also showed that the stimulation intensities to evoke an escape reaction, a panicogenic response, were significantly higher after chronic buspirone and escitalopram treatment. These results suggest that the fear-like response, which was observed 12 h after dlPAG stimulation, could be considered as a relevant animal model for panic disorder with anticipatory anxiety/agoraphobic symptoms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht, The Netherlands. lw.lim@maastrichtuniversity.nl
authors.forename: Lee Wei
authors.initials: LW
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.forename: Arjan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Blokland
authors.forename: Sonny
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Rinske
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Vlamings
authors.forename: Thibaut
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sesia
authors.forename: Mujzgan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aziz-Mohammadi
authors.forename: Veerle
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Visser-Vandewalle
authors.forename: Harry W M
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Steinbusch
authors.forename: Koen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Schruers
authors.forename: Yasin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Temel
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D014151:Anti-Anxiety Agents / Q000494:pharmacology; D018687:Antidepressive Agents, Second-Generation / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002065:Buspirone / Q000494:pharmacology; D015283:Citalopram / Q000494:pharmacology*; D046690:Deep Brain Stimulation; D004924:Escape Reaction / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D005106:Exploratory Behavior / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D005239:Fear / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000523:psychology; D008124:Locomotion / Q000187:drug effects; D008297:Male; D010487:Periaqueductal Gray / Q000502:physiology*; D011897:Random Allocation; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar
chemical_list: D014151:Anti-Anxiety Agents; D018687:Antidepressive Agents, Second-Generation; D015283:Citalopram; D002065:Buspirone