title: The Melatonergic System in Anxiety Disorders and the Role of Melatonin in Conditional Fear.
abstract: Resistance to extinction of certain conditioned responses forms the basis of anxieties, phobias, and compulsions. There has been an available effective means of extinction-based exposure psychotherapy for the treatment of anxiety disorders, such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that has been hypothesized to result from impaired extinction of fear memory. PTSD is considered as a memory disorder within a Pavlovian fear conditioning and extinction framework. Therefore, the aim of this review was to report the preclinical profile of melatonin, a pineal gland hormone, as a potential pharmacological option in the treatment of anxiety disorders such as PTSD, tested with the Pavlovian fear conditioning paradigm.
  
  
  
  We performed a literature review regarding studies that evaluated the effects of melatonin on fear conditioning and fear extinction.
  
  
  
  Results showed that a single administration 30min before conditioning has no effect on the acquisition of cued fear, but impaired contextual fear conditioning. Compared to rats injected with vehicle, rats injected with melatonin 30min before extinction training presented a significant lower freezing during both extinction training and extinction test phases. However, melatonin injected immediately after extinction training was ineffective on extinction learning.
  
  
  
  Melatonin impaired contextual fear conditioning, a hippocampus-dependent task. On the contrary, melatonin facilitates the extinction of conditional cued fear without affecting its acquisition or expression, and melatonin facilitates cued fear extinction only when it is present during extinction training. Although further studies are necessary, the research undertaken until now shows that melatonin modulates fear conditioning and fear extinction and consequently melatonin may serve as an agent for the treatment of PTSD.
authors.affiliation: Yiyang Medical College, Yiyang, Hunan, PR China. Electronic address: 874558215@qq.com.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Yiyang Medical College, Yiyang, Hunan, PR China.
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: School of Basic Medical Sciences, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, PR China.
authors.forename: C-Q
authors.initials: CQ
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D014151:Anti-Anxiety Agents / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001007:Anxiety / Q000097:blood / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000523:psychology; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000097:blood / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000523:psychology; D005108:Extinction, Psychological / Q000187:drug effects; D005239:Fear; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008550:Melatonin / Q000097:blood / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000819:agonists* / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000378:metabolism; D009474:Neurons / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism*; D044094:Receptors, Melatonin / Q000819:agonists* / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000378:metabolism; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000097:blood / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000378:metabolism / Q000523:psychology
chemical_list: D014151:Anti-Anxiety Agents; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; D044094:Receptors, Melatonin; D008550:Melatonin
keywords: Anxiety; Fear conditioning; Fear extinction; Melatonin; PTSD