Involvement of Cholecystokininergic Systems in Anxiety-Induced Hyperalgesia in Male Rats: Behavioral and Biochemical Studies

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Abstract
Keeping in mind the increased pain complaints reported in anxious or depressive patients, our goal was to investigate in rats the consequences of an experimentally provoked state of anxiety/depression on pain behavior and on its underlying mechanisms. We therefore used a model of social defeat consisting of a 30 min protected confrontation followed by a 15 min physical confrontation, repeated during 4 d, that elicited symptoms close to those observed in humans with anxiety or depression. Indeed, 5 d later, animals subjected to social-defeat confrontation were characterized by a decrease of sweet-water consumption and of body weight, and a hyperactivity of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis, suggesting that the social-defeat procedure induced a prolonged state of anxiety.