Update in the methodology of the chronic stress paradigm: internal control matters

Table 5 Effects of COX-2 inhibitor in mice subjected to chronic stress

Changes versus non-stressed control	Stressed drug naive	Stressed Citalopram-treated	Stressed treated with COX-2 blocker
Sucrose preference	↓	↔	↔
Sucrose intake	↓	↔	↔
Floating behavior	↑	↔	↔
Contextual fear conditioning	↓	↔	↔
Parameters of anxiety in elevated O-maze	↑	↔	↑
Percentage of anhedonic mice	above 60%	below 25%	below 25%

Chronic treatment with a COX-2 inhibitor during the course of chronic stress counteracted the development of hedonic deficit, behavioural despair, increased anxiety and cognitive impairment in a similar manner to citalopram. Arrows indicate an increase in the parameter (↑), a decrease (↓), or lack of significant changes in comparison to non-stressed control mice (↔).

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