title: Vicarious social defeat stress: Bridging the gap between physical and emotional stress.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Animal models capable of differentiating the neurobiological intricacies between physical and emotional stress are scarce. Current models rely primarily on physical stressors (e.g., chronic unpredictable or mild stress, social defeat, learned helplessness), and neglect the impact of psychological stress alone. This is surprising given extensive evidence that a traumatic event needs not be directly experienced to produce enduring perturbations on an individual's health and psychological well-being. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a highly debilitating neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by intense fear of trauma-related stimuli, often occurs in individuals that have only witnessed a traumatic event.
  
  
  METHODS
  By modifying the chronic social defeat stress (CSDS) paradigm to include a witness component (witnessing the social defeat of another mouse), we demonstrate a novel behavioral paradigm capable of inducing a robust behavioral syndrome reminiscent of PTSD in emotionally stressed adult mice.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We describe the vicarious social defeat stress (VSDS) model that is capable of inducing a host of behavioral deficits that include social avoidance and other depressive- and anxiety-like phenotypes in adult male mice. VSDS exposure induces weight loss and spike in serum corticosterone (CORT) levels. A month after stress, these mice retain the social avoidant phenotype and have an increased CORT response when exposed to subsequent stress.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The VSDS is a novel paradigm capable of inducing emotional stress by isolating physical stress/confrontation in mice.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The VSDS model can be used to study the short- and long-term neurobiological consequences of exposure to emotional stress in mice.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Program in Neuroscience, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-4301, United States.
authors.forename: Omar K
authors.initials: OK
authors.lastname: Sial
authors.affiliation: National Institute on Drug Abuse, Behavioral Neuroscience Research Branch, Baltimore, MD, United States.
authors.forename: Brandon L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Warren
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Program in Neuroscience, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-4301, United States.
authors.forename: Lyonna F
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Alcantara
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Program in Neuroscience, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-4301, United States.
authors.forename: Eric M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Parise
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Program in Neuroscience, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-4301, United States. Electronic address: bolanos@psy.fsu.edu.
authors.forename: Carlos A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Bolaños-Guzmán
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D003345:Corticosterone / Q000097:blood; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005239:Fear / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D012919:Social Behavior; D012930:Social Dominance; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000097:blood / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000502:physiology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000097:blood / Q000503:physiopathology*
chemical_list: D003345:Corticosterone
keywords: Depression; Emotional stress; PTSD; Social defeat; Witness stress