Date of Award

1-1-2020

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College/School/Department

Department of Psychology

Program

Behavioral Neuroscience

Content Description

1 online resource (viii, 194 pages) : illustrations (chiefly color)

Dissertation/Thesis Chair

Damian G. Zuloaga

Committee Members

Christine K. Wagner, Andrew M. Poulos

Keywords

Anxiety, CRFR1, Hypothalamus, Postpartum, Sexually Dimorphic, Stress, Corticotropin releasing hormone, Stress (Physiology), Affective disorders, Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, Puerperium

Subject Categories

Neuroscience and Neurobiology | Psychiatry and Psychology

Abstract

Despite the apparent sex difference in prevalence of anxiety in humans, pre-clinical studies that have led to anxiolytic drug discoveries between 1960 and 2012 used male animals and approximately 6% of 10,000 studies used female animals. The generalizability of the efficacy of these drugs to both sexes may be limited if data derived are predominantly based on the male brain. The purpose of this dissertation, therefore, was to investigate potential underlying neuronal mechanisms that could be contributing to the sex differences in stress-related mood disorder prevalence and to focus on shedding light on female brains.

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