Honors Theses
Advisor
Tracy Butler, Ph.D. and Yvonne Sun, Ph.D.
Department
Psychology and Biology
Publication Date
4-2018
Document Type
Honors Thesis
Abstract
Early life stress is a risk factor for later development of alcohol use disorders and anxiety disorders in humans. Using rodent experimental models, we know that rats experiencing social isolation as early-life stress exhibit greater anxiety-like behavior and alcohol consumption than rats housed in groups. Examining potential preventive strategies, we investigated the effects of probiotics, which have previously been shown to decrease rodent anxiety-like behavior, on the relationship between early-life stress and anxiety-like behavior in rats. We hypothesized that probiotics consumption would decrease anxiety-like behavior in socially isolated rats, as well as in rats housed in groups. To our surprise, we found that the probiotics had no significant effect on anxiety-like behavior for socially isolated rats but significantly increased anxiety-like behavior in rats housed in groups. Our results suggest probiotics do not have a positive benefit to alleviate consequences of early life stress and raise caution for their therapeutic use.
Permission Statement
This item is protected by copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code) and may only be used for noncommercial, educational, and scholarly purposes
Keywords
Undergraduate research
Disciplines
Biology | Psychology
eCommons Citation
Griff, Parker Maddison, "Chronic Administration of Probiotic L. rhamnosus Increases Anxiety-like Behavior in Group-housed Male Long Evans Rats" (2018). Honors Theses. 157.
https://ecommons.udayton.edu/uhp_theses/157
