School of Psychology, The University of New South Wales, Australia.
School of Psychology, The University of New South Wales, Australia.
Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2018 Jun 8;84(Pt A):115-121. doi: 10.1016/j.pnpbp.2018.02.005. Epub 2018 Feb 9.
The major weakness of psychological and pharmacological interventions for anxiety disorders is that the fear often returns. We examined whether DCS, which has attracted considerable attention as a potential pharmacological adjunct to therapy, reduces relapse, and whether individual differences in the rate of extinction modulates its effectiveness in reducing relapse. Experimentally-naïve adult male rats received pairings of a white noise CS with a shock US, extinction to a criterion immediately followed by an injection of DCS or Saline, and then were tested for relapse of fear (renewal, spontaneous recovery, or reinstatement; in four separate experiments). The number of blocks to reach criteria in extinction was used to classify animals as "Fast" or "Slow" Extinguishers. We consistently found that while DCS reduced relapse in Fast Extinguishers, it had minimal effects on relapse in Slow Extinguishers. Importantly, the differences in the effect of DCS on Fast and Slow Extinguishers was not due to Fast Extinguishers being less susceptible to relapse as animals in both groups exhibited similar amounts of relapse when injected with saline. Relapse, of all three types tested, was consistently reduced by DCS, but only in the Fast Extinguishers. Such findings contribute to a growing literature identifying factors that could influence the efficacy of pharmacological adjuncts to exposure therapy. These results have important implications for the development of personalized treatment approaches, which recognize, and are tailored to, individual differences.
心理和药理学干预焦虑症的主要弱点是恐惧往往会再次出现。我们研究了 DCS 是否可以作为治疗的潜在药理学辅助手段来减少复发，以及个体在消退速度上的差异是否会调节其降低复发的效果。实验性-naive 成年雄性大鼠接受白噪声 CS 与电击 US 的配对，立即进行消退至标准，然后注射 DCS 或生理盐水，然后进行恐惧的复发测试（恢复、自发恢复或重新建立；在四个单独的实验中）。在消退中达到标准的块数用于将动物分类为“快速”或“慢速”消退者。我们一致发现，虽然 DCS 减少了快速消退者的复发，但对慢速消退者的复发影响很小。重要的是，DCS 对快速和慢速消退者的影响差异不是由于快速消退者对复发的敏感性降低，因为两组动物在注射生理盐水时都表现出相似的复发量。所有三种测试类型的复发都被 DCS 一致地降低了，但仅在快速消退者中。这些发现有助于越来越多的文献确定可能影响暴露疗法的药理学辅助治疗效果的因素。这些结果对于开发个性化治疗方法具有重要意义，这些方法认识到并针对个体差异进行了调整。
